This video is supported by Dashlane.
Back in May of this year, the Atlas 5 rocket lifted off the pad, carrying a secret space plane into orbit.
Operated by the US Space Force, the X37 has spent 8 of the last 10 years in space.
Now it is looking to beat it’s previous record and test out a new form of technology
which could have a massive impact here on Earth.
The X37 will perform the first ever test of a solar power farm in space.
The idea is that a large solar array in space could gather an enormous amount of energy
from the sun and wirelessly transmit power to anywhere on Earth.
This idea has been around for a while - but the cost of actually launching and testing
something this large has always been too high - until now.
Due to the incredibly low cost of the Falcon 9, SpaceX are starting to revolutionize the
broadband industry with their gigantic constellation of internet satellites.
With space becoming more and more accessible, it could allow energy companies to move their
business into space.
On a perfectly sunny day, a one by one meter of land on Earth would typically receive around
250 Watts of power from the sun.
Even the most efficient solar panels can only turn about 20% of that energy into electricity.
A solar panel in space would receive more than double the amount of power from the sun
since it isn’t being blocked by our atmosphere.
As the Sun's energy hits the solar panel it gets converted into electricity.
That electricity could then be converted into a microwave signal and beamed wirelessly down to Earth.
These microwaves could be transmitted at a specific frequency, allowing them to pass
through the clouds without causing harm to life on Earth.
In order to receive this power, a large farm of rectennas would be built on the ground
to convert the incoming microwaves into electricity.
As the microwaves travel down to Earth, they spread out over a large distance.
This means the farm would need to be several kilometers wide in order to harness all of the power.
But instead of transmitting this power to the ground, what if we used it to power airplanes?
Although many industries have moved over to more renewable energy sources, the airline
industry still faces a massive challenge in the form of energy density.
An airplane stores its energy in the form of fuel while an electric plane stores its
energy in batteries.
In order to store the same amount of energy, an electric airplane ends up almost 40 times
heavier due to the amount of batteries it needs.
For an airplane, this extra weight drastically reduces how far it can fly and how many passengers it can hold.
Recently, an electric Cessna airplane took to the skies over Washington to perform its
first ever test flight.
This is the world’s largest electric passenger plane, but it can only carry 9 passengers
a distance of 160km.
But what if we could remove most of the batteries from an electric plane and provide a constant
source of power throughout the flight?
While a solar farm in space could beam power down to Earth, it could theoretically beam
the power to moving targets like planes, ships and even other satellites in orbit.
In order to maximize the amount of power being sent to an aircraft, the power could be converted
into laser light instead of microwaves and beamed directly onto the plane's solar array.
This would allow more power to be transferred in a much narrower beam.
Since planes fly well above the thickest parts of our atmosphere, things like clouds and
fog wouldn’t get in the way of the power beam.
This would allow the plane to have much smaller receivers than those used on the ground.
A constellation of solar farms placed in a geostationary orbit could provide constant
power even to an aircraft flying through the night.
Although an electric plane would still need a battery pack for takeoff and landing, the
majority of batteries could be stripped out and replaced with cabin space
for passengers and cargo.
Once the plane is above the clouds, the solar farm would lock onto the moving aircraft and
start beaming power continuously to the plane’s solar arrays.
This may seem like a crazy idea from the future, but most of the technologies involved have
already been tried and tested.
Back in 2003, NASA engineers flew a model airplane by beaming a 10kW laser at its solar array.
In 2008, engineers beamed 20 watts of power from a mountain top in Maui down to a receiver
150km away on the island of Hawaii.
The experiment onboard the X37 will be the first ever real life test of a solar power farm in space.
Despite the amazing benefits a solar farm in space would offer, the cost to develop
all of these different technologies is still too high.
But with space now becoming a playground for private companies, it seems almost inevitable
that one day we’ll be harnessing the enormous amounts of energy just outside our atmosphere.
As SpaceX starts to roll out their Starlink constellation, it will provide internet to
millions of people that currently don’t have access.
Although the majority of the world is well accustomed to the internet by now, most of
us still have a hard time remembering all of our passwords.
Dashlane is the best way to manage and remember all of your passwords, personal data and payment
information so you don’t have to.
When you sign up to Dashlane you choose a master password which will never leave your device.
Every time you sign up to a website, Dashlane generates a long and complicated password
which is encrypted using your master password.
This keeps all of your passwords secure and means you only ever need to remember one password.
It’s incredibly simple and works across everything.
They also have a VPN which protects all of your private data.
To save yourself the hassle of filling out forms and resetting passwords, try Dashlane
for free on your first device by visiting dashlane.com/primalspace.
Then, when you want to upgrade to premium use the code primalspace.
This is not only a great way to try out a free product but a great way to support the channel.
Thank you very much for watching and I’ll see you in the next video.