ALBAWABA - Baiju Bhatt, the American entrepreneur and co-founder of Robinhood, a US-based financial services company, said he is planning to install solar panels in space. Bhatt stated that this project aims to transmit energy from space to Earth.
Baiju Bhatt sci-fi solar plan
The Billionaire and co-founder of Robinhood announced plans to install solar panels in space by founding his new company, Aetherflux, a US aerospace company on a mission to commercialize space solar power.
Bhatt stated that Aetherflux will work on building a satellite network to generate power in space and send it to Earth through designated stations.
“This goal of having infrastructure in space that’s truly resilient to conditions on the ground is really appealing. It’s the kind of direction that we’ve already seen be hugely important with Starlink. We know how to build constellations of spacecraft, we know how to integrate all these different components, and we know how to build the ground receivers. There’s obviously a lot of complexity in our particular model, but none of these are hard science problems in and of themselves,” Bhatt said as reported by Forbes.
Aetherflux’s satellites are designed to orbit the Earth every 90 minutes. Even during the 45 of no sunlight, the satellites can provide power using batteries charged by the solar panels. (Shutterstock)
It is worth noting that Aetherflux is not particularly the only company focused on transmitting solar power from space, as NASA along with other government agencies explored this concept back in the 1970s.
However, Bhatt revealed that Aetherflux established a new approach that uses microwaves to transmit energy from space to Earth, using infrared lasers to deliver power.
According to scientists, Aetherflux’s new approach will require smaller, less expensive satellites for the power transmission process. This will facilitate scaling, lower launch costs, and reduce the environmental footprint on Earth.
Additionally, Aetherflux’s satellites are designed to orbit the Earth every 90 minutes. Even during the 45 of no sunlight, the satellites can provide power using batteries charged by the solar panels.
