Solar panels on spacecraft supply power for two main uses.
Building space based solar panels factory.
Power to run the sensors active heating cooling and telemetry.
Power for spacecraft propulsion electric propulsion sometimes called solar electric propulsion.
The renewable energy concept has been around for decades and as the space race with.
Department of energy carried out serious studies on space based solar power and over the decades since various types of solar power satellites spss have been.
In the 1970s nasa and the u s.
In fact this technology was mentioned way back in 1941 in the science fiction story reason written by isaac asimov.
For both uses a key figure of merit of the solar panels is the specific power watts generated divided by solar array mass which indicates on a relative basis how much.
The concept of space based solar power is not new.
Space based solar power attracted considerable attention in the 1970s as the necessary individual technical components in essence photovoltaic cells satellite technology and wireless power.
Space based solar power sbsp is the concept of collecting solar power in outer space and distributing it to earth potential advantages of collecting solar energy in space include a higher collection rate and a longer collection period due to the lack of a diffusing atmosphere and the possibility of placing a solar collector in an orbiting location where there is no night.