(Right) Aerostat depiction. (via US Military)
The idea of sending power wirelessly over considerable distances has been around since Nikola Tesla demonstrated that ability using his Tesla Coils back in the late 1880’s and early 1900’s. Since that time, scientists have designed alternative ways to deliver power without the use of wires, however the distances are on relatively small-scale levels (think feet rather than miles). Now a professor at the New York Institute of Technology is looking to send significant levels of power over hundreds of miles using military-grade balloons (known as aerostats) and lasers. The military’s aerostat balloons have been in use for quite some time now on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan for surveillance, so those balloons are ideal as they are both robust in nature and can carry fairly heavy loads. Professor Stephen Blank’s (NYIT’s Engineering and Computer Sciences department) system would use a laser, beamed through a fiber-optic cable up to the aerostat positioned above the laser’s source. The laser would then be beamed over to a distant balloon, where it is received and then converted over to electrical energy (hundreds of kilowatts) and sent back to earth via the balloons tether, where it can then be utilized. Professor Blank states that the first initial use of this system would be used to get power to disaster zones, such as the Philippines that was recently ravaged by typhoon Haiyan. Essentially power could be acquired from an aircraft carrier’s nuclear generator stationed off the coast of disaster zones and send that emergency power to where it’s needed, such as hospitals and trauma centers. The end-goal for the technology however, is for use as a space-based solar power collector, whose energy is then beamed back to earth via lasers.
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