DIU seeking ‘near-term’ power-beaming satellite demo

WASHINGTON ― The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) wants to loft a prototype satellite to low Earth orbit for beaming electrical power, both to other spacecraft and to the ground, within the next several years, according to a new solicitation to prospective commercial vendors.

Space power beaming (SPB) “could enable a number of applications of interest to the Department of War such as edge computing, in-space manufacturing, and power delivery to forward operating locations and unmanned systems,” explained DIU’s “Commercial Solutions Opening” announcement, using the Department of Defense’s secondary name.

DIU notes that while ultimately envisioned as a “multi-orbit” capability extending into deep space beyond Earth, “Joint Force desires a near-term LEO-based prototype and demonstration to evaluate the military utility of the capability.”

Under the project plan, DIU intends to contract for one or more prototypes. The first step will be a lab demonstration “within 12 months of award.” DIU will then evaluation the results and decide whether “the solution is ready for on-orbit prototype demonstration(s) within 24 months of award.”

The prototypes “are intended to lead to an operational capability” by fiscal 2030, the DIU announcement said, with the “desired programmatic end state is the ability to access this operational SPB capability on demand.

The DIU solicitation cites four lines of effort (LoEs) for proposed industry solutions to address:

• Space-to-Space Power Beaming, capable of delivering energy to satellites orbiting “up to” 1,200 kilometers (about 746 miles) in altitude.
• Space-to-Terrestrial Power Beaming
• Power Beaming Receivers
• Next-gen Power Beaming Components, “designed to reduce SWaP [size, weight and power] requirements and/or the manufacturability for SPB transmitting and receiving capabilities.”

The new solicitation does not specify the type of power source should be used on board the satellite(s). A DIU spokesperson told Breaking Defense the reason is to keep vendor options open, with the goal of rapidly leveraging commercial technologies in order to avoid a decades-long development cycle to get a prototype up and working. The idea is for DIU to then work with the vendor(s) to make the prototypes compatible with Pentagon systems and architecture to get relevant data.

Most current spacecraft use solar-powered batteries to create electricity for their own operations, but those batteries are heavy and have limited lifespans, and thus are inadequate for off-board power beaming.

As one alternative, the Defense Department, including DIU, the Energy Department and NASA, as well as commercial firms, have been experimenting with small nuclear reactors to provide longer-duration electricity even in deep space where the Sun’s rays are dimmer ― as well as to charge up power space-based and electrical power systems via beaming. These efforts were given a boost by President Donald Trump’s executive order signed in December aimed at achieving American dominance in space, which called for nuclear reactors ready to launch into space and to the Moon by 2030.

In addition, there is growing Pentagon interest in space-based solar power satellites that would directly harvest solar radiation, and convert it to radio-frequency waves for beaming to receivers in space, in the air, at sea or on the ground.

The DIU solicitation also does not dictate the type of beaming mechanism to be used by the prototypes.

There are two major beaming technologies capable of transmitting energy from satellites to receivers that convert the energy to electricity, each with different pros and cons: those using microwaves and those using infrared or near-infrared lasers. The Navy Research Laboratory, in particular, for several years has been a leader in demonstrating the viability of both lasers and microwaves for various use cases.

Industry has until July 22 to respond to the call for proposals, and DIU is planning “to hold Phase 2 pitches” on Aug. 3.