Space Lasers Are About to Get Their First Real Test Generating Energy
Space Lasers Are About to Get Their First Real Test Generating Energy
太空激光即将迎来首次能源传输实测
Google, SpaceX, and a host of startups are all planning to build data centers in space. But for those plans to work, they’ll need power. Lots of it. 谷歌、SpaceX 以及众多初创公司都在计划在太空中建立数据中心。但要实现这些计划，他们需要电力，而且是大量的电力。
Star Catcher, a startup based in Jacksonville, Florida, aims to provide it by concentrating the sun’s energy and using lasers to beam it to satellites’ waiting solar panels. The company is preparing to launch its prototype system aboard a SpaceX rocket this week that will transmit energy to another satellite in orbit. 总部位于佛罗里达州杰克逊维尔的初创公司 Star Catcher 旨在通过汇聚太阳能并利用激光将其传输至卫星的太阳能电池板来解决这一问题。该公司正准备在本周通过 SpaceX 火箭发射其原型系统，该系统将向轨道上的另一颗卫星传输能量。
If it’s successful, it would be the first time lasers have beamed energy between two untethered objects in space. But the idea of generating solar power in space goes back decades. 如果成功，这将是人类历史上首次在太空中两个非连接物体之间通过激光传输能量。然而，在太空中产生太阳能的想法由来已久。
It showed up in a 1941 sci-fi piece by Isaac Asimov, and NASA studied it in the 1970s. “Launching large amounts of hardware into orbit was extremely expensive, so generating power in space and transmitting it elsewhere rarely made practical sense,” says Hanieh Fattahi, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light. But now, falling launch costs are making it more feasible to have orbital industries that will be able to provide such energy. 这一概念最早出现在艾萨克·阿西莫夫 1941 年的科幻作品中，美国国家航空航天局（NASA）也在 20 世纪 70 年代对此进行了研究。马克斯·普朗克光科学研究所的研究员 Hanieh Fattahi 表示：“将大量硬件发射到轨道上的成本极其昂贵，因此在太空中发电并传输到其他地方在当时几乎没有实际意义。”但现在，随着发射成本的下降，建立能够提供此类能源的轨道产业正变得越来越可行。
“There isn’t a power grid in space,” says chief executive officer and cofounder Andrew Rush. “Everybody just goes on these little camping trips.” “太空中没有电网，”首席执行官兼联合创始人 Andrew Rush 说，“每个人都像是在进行短途露营。”
Star Catcher’s solution is an array of what it calls power nodes that serve as both a solar power plant and power line. To generate energy, the firm’s satellites gather sunlight using a collection of lenses and refine it into the wavelengths of light that Star Catcher says can provide up to 10 times more power than diffuse sunlight. It then emits a laser beam—think of it as an ethereal transmission cable—that can be directed at satellites in need of power. That promises more uptime and, Rush says, more profit for satellite operators. Star Catcher 的解决方案是一系列被称为“电力节点”的阵列，它们既是太阳能发电站，也是输电线。为了产生能量，该公司的卫星利用透镜阵列收集阳光，并将其精炼成特定波长的光。Star Catcher 表示，这种光提供的能量比漫射阳光高出 10 倍。随后，它会发射一道激光束——可以将其想象成一条无形的输电电缆——并将其对准需要电力的卫星。Rush 表示，这将带来更长的运行时间，并为卫星运营商带来更多利润。
In a world where launches cost thousands of dollars per kilogram of weight, reducing battery size while adding more useful instruments—or in the case of space data centers, GPUs—can pay dividends. 在一个发射成本高达每公斤数千美元的世界里，减小电池体积并增加更多有用的仪器（对于太空数据中心而言，即 GPU）可以带来显著的回报。
There’s clear interest in what Star Catcher is offering. The company announced a $65 million round of funding earlier this year, and it won a $30 million award from the US Space Force. The company has also inked 40 letters of intent from prospective buyers and, more importantly, 10 power purchase agreements, which are long-term contracts. There’s also a sign of optimism for space-based industries launching on the same SpaceX mission as Star Catcher’s system: Google’s first attempt at a space-based data center is also hitching a ride on the rocket. 市场对 Star Catcher 提供的技术表现出了浓厚的兴趣。该公司今年早些时候宣布完成了 6500 万美元的融资，并获得了美国太空军 3000 万美元的奖金。该公司还签署了 40 份来自潜在买家的意向书，更重要的是，还签署了 10 份长期购电协议。与 Star Catcher 系统搭乘同一枚 SpaceX 火箭发射的其他太空产业也展现出乐观迹象：谷歌首次尝试的太空数据中心也搭乘了这枚火箭。
The satellite launching this week, dubbed Protostar, is a small-scale version of the satellites Star Catcher hopes to eventually deploy that Rush says will provide “meaningful commercial power provisioning services in orbit before the end of the decade.” But it’ll be the first time the entire system comes together in space, with the company using its tracking technology to beam energy to an untethered cubesat that’s launching at the same time. 本周发射的卫星名为“原恒星”（Protostar），它是 Star Catcher 希望最终部署的卫星的小型版本。Rush 表示，该系统将在本世纪末之前提供“有意义的轨道商业电力供应服务”。这将是整个系统首次在太空中协同工作，公司将利用其跟踪技术向同时发射的一颗非连接立方星传输能量。
“Part of this demonstration is testing how much power is received by the cubesat as it moves away from Protostar and comparing that against our models,” says Rush. “这次演示的一部分是测试立方星在远离 Protostar 时接收到了多少能量，并将其与我们的模型进行对比，”Rush 说道。
The company has done a space-based test of its technology that would allow it to track satellites it’s transmitting energy to, and it set a record last year for beaming power on the ground, besting a mark set by DARPA. 该公司此前已对其技术进行了太空测试，以验证其跟踪目标卫星的能力，并于去年在地面电力传输方面创下了纪录，超越了美国国防高级研究计划局（DARPA）设定的标准。
That test delivered more than 1 kilowatt of power to off-the-shelf solar panels—enough juice to power a microwave. That means there’s a ways to go to power telecommunications satellites, let alone space-based data centers, but Rush says the proof-of-concept on the ground is what gives him confidence that the company is ready to see what it can do in orbit. He says Star Catcher is still in the “crawl” phase but on its way to walking, then running. 那次测试向现成的太阳能电池板输送了超过 1 千瓦的电力——足以驱动一台微波炉。这意味着要为电信卫星供电，更不用说太空数据中心，还有很长的路要走。但 Rush 表示，地面的概念验证让他有信心在轨道上进行实测。他说，Star Catcher 目前仍处于“爬行”阶段，但正在向“行走”和“奔跑”迈进。
This won’t be the first test of lasers in space. The Naval Research Laboratory completed an experiment in 2023, operating a space laser to generate power for 100 days. However, the system was a single unit, and the beam traveled less than 5 feet. (If Star Catcher is working on crawling, then this experiment was akin to tummy time.) That laser only operated with 11 percent efficiency, an issue Fattahi says will need to be overcome. She also says tracking systems, managing heat, and ensuring equipment can operate in the cold vacuum of space for years also need to be teased out to make space-based lasers economically viable. 这并非首次在太空中进行激光测试。美国海军研究实验室在 2023 年完成了一项实验，运行了一台太空激光器并持续发电 100 天。然而，该系统是一个单一单元，光束传输距离不到 5 英尺。（如果说 Star Catcher 处于“爬行”阶段，那么这个实验就相当于“趴着玩”的阶段。）该激光器的运行效率仅为 11%，Fattahi 表示这是一个需要克服的问题。她还指出，要使太空激光具有经济可行性，还需要解决跟踪系统、热量管理以及确保设备能在寒冷的真空太空中长期运行等问题。
Researchers have also explored other forms of space-based solar, including successful tests by Caltech scientists to transmit solar power via microwaves back to Earth. That technique can transmit more energy, but it requires a massive receiver to harness it, whereas lasers can hit a much smaller target. 研究人员还探索了其他形式的太空太阳能，包括加州理工学院科学家成功进行的通过微波将太阳能传回地球的测试。该技术可以传输更多能量，但需要巨大的接收器来捕获，而激光则可以瞄准更小的目标。
“As we grow the infrastructure in space,” Rush says of Star Catcher’s satellites, “we begin to make it more economical to put larger and more capable industry in space. I view what we’re building as transformational for the space sector as reusable launch vehicles.” “随着我们在太空中基础设施的增长，”Rush 在谈到 Star Catcher 的卫星时说，“我们将使在太空中部署更大、能力更强的工业变得更加经济。我认为我们正在构建的技术，其对太空领域的变革意义，不亚于可重复使用的运载火箭。”