Transmission
How power moves in space. Wireless power transmission, microwave and laser beaming, rectennas, and the physical wiring that carries current between systems.
Wireless power beaming
Microwave and laser links can transfer power without cables, enabling concepts from space-based solar power to rover charging across a crater. Each link is a chain of efficiencies: DC-to-RF or DC-to-light, transmit aperture, propagation, collection, and conversion back to DC. Every link must be measured or honestly assumed.
Cables and harnesses
Spacecraft wiring must survive vacuum, thermal cycling, and radiation while minimizing mass. High-voltage distribution reduces cable mass and ohmic losses but raises arc-risk and insulation challenges. Power management and distribution systems route, condition, and protect the bus.
From laboratory to link
Most beaming demonstrations are ground-based or short-range. Scaling to space-to-space or space-to-ground links introduces pointing precision, atmospheric losses, spectrum allocation, and safety questions that the daily analysis stream examines case by case.