Feasibility Assessment of Microwave Power Beaming for Small Satellites
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Lafleur, Jarret M.
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Abstract
While wireless power transmission to fulfill Earth's energy needs has been widely
popularized as a potential application of microwave power beaming, one space application
that has remained relatively untouched is power beaming between satellites. This paper
provides a system-level analysis illustrating the feasibility and limitations of power beaming
within a small-satellite cluster. To accomplish this analysis, the simple case of a two spacecraft
system is examined. Parametric models of spacecraft power requirements as a
function of eleven design variables allow for an extensive trade-space evaluation, and
analysis is divided into four segments. First, the existence of feasible designs in the context
of the small-satellite problem is verified with a Monte Carlo sweep of the design space. Next,
a feasible baseline (reference) design is defined, and sensitivity of that baseline to individual
variables is assessed. Finally, the design space is visualized with respect to distance between
spacecraft, antenna diameter, and power independence factors. Despite optimistic
assumptions in the setup of the problem, it is demonstrated that the small satellite power
beaming design space is severely constrained. Only 6% of the design space falls under a
suggested 250 W small satellite power constraint. Designs that are feasible involve very high
transmission frequencies (>33 GHz), large antenna diameters for a small satellite (>0.93 m),
and stringent proximity operations between satellites (within 740 m). Furthermore, full
dependence of one spacecraft on power provided by another is shown to be effectively
infeasible. These results do suggest, however, that inter-spacecraft microwave power
beaming may deserve some consideration as a supplementary power mode for future small satellite
clusters in short-term emergency or atypical situations.
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Date
2008-07
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