Power Satellite

10 KW POWER SATELLITE PROPOSAL

EARLY CONCENTRATOR SYSTEM (2002)

M O X E N E R G YPower from the c lear Blue Sky

11 2 A N a y l a n d S t r e e t C h r i s t c h u r c h N Z • t e l e p h o n e : + 6 4 0 2 7 4 3 6 0 3 5 2 • w w w. m o k e n e r g y. c o m

10 kW Solar Pumped Laser Satellite

A 10 kilowatt Solar Pumped Laser Satellite (10kWSPLS) equipped with holographic beam steering (HBS) and a 300

mm bandgap matched terrestrial receiver (300 mm BMTR) to test proof of concept in space. Price and terms to be

negotiated based on level of completeness at time of delivery. The present overview is a first effort at detailing major

subsystems and primary vendors.

Concentrator

The system shall operate at 1,600x solar intensity and shall exceed 55% overall efficiency converting sunlight to laser

energy on the ground at a level of 10,000 Watts. Thus, the primary concentrator will be 4,110.6 mm in diameter and

intercept approximately 18,180 Watts of primary solar energy on orbit to produce a spot 102.8 mm in diameter at the

focal point.

Solar Pumped Steam Engine 1920s Solar Pumped Optical Fiber 1980s Thin Film Solar Concentrator 1990s

Optical Processing

The solar spectrum will be separated using optical bandpass filters based on 3M’s 2000 discovery of Giant Birefrin-

gent Optics (GBO). This will allow several band-gap matched thin disk lasers to be operated in parallel in a manner

similar to that described in my 2006 solar energy patent 7,081,584

(Mook). Segmenting the solar spectrum in this way will increase

slope efficiencies to 80% and overall efficiency to 55% and more.

Thin Disk Laser

Each optical bandpass will consist of an active medium forming a

very thin disk 102.8 mm in diameter and 200 um thick. Each ma-

terial is stimulated at the frontside via band-gap matched concen-

trated solar energy. The system shall consist of three to five thin

disk lasers each producing an average output of between 1.5 kW

and 3.5 kW obtaining a total output of 10.0 kW or more.

M O X E N E R G Y! 1 0 K W T E S T S AT E L L I T E

1

Beam Steering

An amplified reflection phase conjugation four wave mixing process

maintains accurate tracking of the receiver by the satellite. Solar energy

from the primary parabolic reflector is focused on to a secondary

parabolic reflector and then to the lasing medium. Laser energy is

beamed through a non-linear media to a mirror and reflected back along

the primary beam line. A reference (probe beam) is picked up by a

760 mm telescope which forms the primary beam output window. This reference

beam interacts in the non-linear media near the focus of this scope to

produce a conjugate reflection to the reference beam (conjugate beam)

producing significant gain in the conjugate reflection

Attitude Control

The 4.1 m diameter primary parabolic concentrator reflects light to a

focal point where sunlight is converted to laser energy. The paraboloid is a figure of revolution and is therefore bal-

anced around the center of rotation. Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) based thruster arrays near the center

of gravity of the satellite provide full 3-axis attitude control. An integrated inertial guidance and control system is

built into each array. The attitude control system uses a portion of the primary solar energy to drive an electrical

rocket array capable of 2,000 sec Isp producing a total of 50 micro-Newton thrust level at each location. with suffi-

cient propellant to impart 100 m/sec delta-v.

Power Receiver

Five collinear beams share the 760 mm diameter beam output window on

orbit. These communicate with five 355.6 mm diameter beam receiving

telescopes on Earth. Each receiver operates at a matched band gap whose

power ranges from 1.5 kW to 3.5 kW each. All five total 10.0 kW output.

The telescopes need not be co-located. The optics of each telescope are

adapted to illuminate a 100 mm diameter band-gap matched photovoltaic

array that converts the received energy to DC electrical power at high effi-

ciency. Rayleigh limits allow efficient operation up to an altitude of 250 km

at the 640 nm wavelength.

Large Aperture Receiver Option

A 760 mm terrestrial receiver using a duplicate of the optics used on orbit

permits efficient reception of energy up to an altitude of 550 km.


2

parabolic reflector

solar lens

cooling finger

disk laser

non-linear media

mirrorbeam output window

reference beam

conjugate beam

from primary

355 mm Cassegrain Reflector


3

760 mm Dobsonian Reflector circa 1988

Multi-spectral Multi-junction Solar Power circa 2002

Mok Energy Labs circa 2002

Mok Energy Labs circa 2002 2,400 mm Primary

PRIOR ARTOver the past twenty years a large number of

inflatable concentrators have been built and

proven to work successfully in space. Over

this period active control of laser energy has

also been demonstrated.


4

Air Force Research Laboratory 4m x 6m (NASA Langley)

SRS Technologies, Inc. 2m x 3m (NASA Glenn)

Inflatable Antenna 7 m (L’Gaarde)

YAL-1A Airborne Laser (Edwards AFB)

PARTNERS/SUBCONTRACTORS

The tuneable laser source produces any wavelength of light from red to UV. It is made up of two lasers – a pump la-

ser, which produces green light and a tuneable dye laser, which produces variable frequencies of red light. It adds

photons from the two lasers together in a process called frequency conversion to produce light across the UV spec-

trum. The resulting laser light covers a very narrow range of energies.


5

UV Tuneable Laser and Roger Reeves (Canterbury University)

Boeing Satellite Systems (Sylmar California) Microfabrica (Van Nuys California)


6

tensioning ring (inflatable)

paraboloid (inflatable)

4.1 m

struts (inflatable)

window (inflatable)

power beaming window

0.76 m

satellite main body

TEST SATELLITE (DEPLOYED)

TEST SATELLITE (LAUNCH)

COMPARABLE

500 W/36 KW

SNAP-10A was launched from Vandenberg AFB by an

ATLAS Agena D rocket on April 3, 1965 into a polar orbit

at an altitude of approximately 1,300 km. It is in a retro-

grade orbit. Its nuclear electrical source, made up of

thermoelectric elements, was intended to produce over

500 watts of electrical power for one year. After 43 days,

an onboard voltage regulator within the spacecraft—unre-

lated to the SNAP reactor itself—failed, causing the reac-

tor core to be shut down. The reactor was left in a 700-

nautical-mile (1,300"km) earth orbit for an expected dura-

tion of 4,000 years.

An anomalous event in November 1979 caused the vehicle

to begin shedding an eventual 50 pieces. A collision has

not been ruled out and radioactive debris may have been

released


7

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TIME OF FLIGHT MASS SPECTROMETER

Representative TOFMS 500 mm x 550 mm x 300 mm

Power Emitter

Power Receiver TOFMS

Plasma Deposition

Aeroshell

30 kM

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Power Satellite