10 KW POWER SATELLITE PROPOSAL EARLY CONCENTRATOR SYSTEM (2002) M O X E N E R G Y Power from the clear Blue Sky 112 A Nayland Street Christchurch NZ • telephone: +64 0274 360 352 • www.mokenergy.com
Aug 12, 2015
10 KW POWER SATELLITE PROPOSAL
EARLY CONCENTRATOR SYSTEM (2002)
M O X E N E R G YPower from the c lear Blue Sky
11 2 A N a y l a n d S t r e e t C h r i s t c h u r c h N Z • t e l e p h o n e : + 6 4 0 2 7 4 3 6 0 3 5 2 • w w w. m o k e n e r g y. c o m
10 kW Solar Pumped Laser Satellite
A 10 kilowatt Solar Pumped Laser Satellite (10kWSPLS) equipped with holographic beam steering (HBS) and a 300
mm bandgap matched terrestrial receiver (300 mm BMTR) to test proof of concept in space. Price and terms to be
negotiated based on level of completeness at time of delivery. The present overview is a first effort at detailing major
subsystems and primary vendors.
Concentrator
The system shall operate at 1,600x solar intensity and shall exceed 55% overall efficiency converting sunlight to laser
energy on the ground at a level of 10,000 Watts. Thus, the primary concentrator will be 4,110.6 mm in diameter and
intercept approximately 18,180 Watts of primary solar energy on orbit to produce a spot 102.8 mm in diameter at the
focal point.
Solar Pumped Steam Engine 1920s Solar Pumped Optical Fiber 1980s Thin Film Solar Concentrator 1990s
Optical Processing
The solar spectrum will be separated using optical bandpass filters based on 3M’s 2000 discovery of Giant Birefrin-
gent Optics (GBO). This will allow several band-gap matched thin disk lasers to be operated in parallel in a manner
similar to that described in my 2006 solar energy patent 7,081,584
(Mook). Segmenting the solar spectrum in this way will increase
slope efficiencies to 80% and overall efficiency to 55% and more.
Thin Disk Laser
Each optical bandpass will consist of an active medium forming a
very thin disk 102.8 mm in diameter and 200 um thick. Each ma-
terial is stimulated at the frontside via band-gap matched concen-
trated solar energy. The system shall consist of three to five thin
disk lasers each producing an average output of between 1.5 kW
and 3.5 kW obtaining a total output of 10.0 kW or more.
M O X E N E R G Y! 1 0 K W T E S T S AT E L L I T E
1
Beam Steering
An amplified reflection phase conjugation four wave mixing process
maintains accurate tracking of the receiver by the satellite. Solar energy
from the primary parabolic reflector is focused on to a secondary
parabolic reflector and then to the lasing medium. Laser energy is
beamed through a non-linear media to a mirror and reflected back along
the primary beam line. A reference (probe beam) is picked up by a
760 mm telescope which forms the primary beam output window. This reference
beam interacts in the non-linear media near the focus of this scope to
produce a conjugate reflection to the reference beam (conjugate beam)
producing significant gain in the conjugate reflection
Attitude Control
The 4.1 m diameter primary parabolic concentrator reflects light to a
focal point where sunlight is converted to laser energy. The paraboloid is a figure of revolution and is therefore bal-
anced around the center of rotation. Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) based thruster arrays near the center
of gravity of the satellite provide full 3-axis attitude control. An integrated inertial guidance and control system is
built into each array. The attitude control system uses a portion of the primary solar energy to drive an electrical
rocket array capable of 2,000 sec Isp producing a total of 50 micro-Newton thrust level at each location. with suffi-
cient propellant to impart 100 m/sec delta-v.
Power Receiver
Five collinear beams share the 760 mm diameter beam output window on
orbit. These communicate with five 355.6 mm diameter beam receiving
telescopes on Earth. Each receiver operates at a matched band gap whose
power ranges from 1.5 kW to 3.5 kW each. All five total 10.0 kW output.
The telescopes need not be co-located. The optics of each telescope are
adapted to illuminate a 100 mm diameter band-gap matched photovoltaic
array that converts the received energy to DC electrical power at high effi-
ciency. Rayleigh limits allow efficient operation up to an altitude of 250 km
at the 640 nm wavelength.
Large Aperture Receiver Option
A 760 mm terrestrial receiver using a duplicate of the optics used on orbit
permits efficient reception of energy up to an altitude of 550 km.
M O X E N E R G Y! 1 0 K W T E S T S AT E L L I T E
2
parabolic reflector
solar lens
cooling finger
disk laser
non-linear media
mirrorbeam output window
reference beam
conjugate beam
from primary
355 mm Cassegrain Reflector
M O X E N E R G Y! 1 0 K W T E S T S AT E L L I T E
3
760 mm Dobsonian Reflector circa 1988
Multi-spectral Multi-junction Solar Power circa 2002
Mok Energy Labs circa 2002
Mok Energy Labs circa 2002 2,400 mm Primary
PRIOR ARTOver the past twenty years a large number of
inflatable concentrators have been built and
proven to work successfully in space. Over
this period active control of laser energy has
also been demonstrated.
M O X E N E R G Y! 1 0 K W T E S T S AT E L L I T E
4
Air Force Research Laboratory 4m x 6m (NASA Langley)
SRS Technologies, Inc. 2m x 3m (NASA Glenn)
Inflatable Antenna 7 m (L’Gaarde)
YAL-1A Airborne Laser (Edwards AFB)
PARTNERS/SUBCONTRACTORS
The tuneable laser source produces any wavelength of light from red to UV. It is made up of two lasers – a pump la-
ser, which produces green light and a tuneable dye laser, which produces variable frequencies of red light. It adds
photons from the two lasers together in a process called frequency conversion to produce light across the UV spec-
trum. The resulting laser light covers a very narrow range of energies.
M O X E N E R G Y! 1 0 K W T E S T S AT E L L I T E
5
UV Tuneable Laser and Roger Reeves (Canterbury University)
Boeing Satellite Systems (Sylmar California) Microfabrica (Van Nuys California)
M O X E N E R G Y! 1 0 K W T E S T S AT E L L I T E
6
tensioning ring (inflatable)
paraboloid (inflatable)
4.1 m
struts (inflatable)
window (inflatable)
power beaming window
0.76 m
satellite main body
TEST SATELLITE (DEPLOYED)
TEST SATELLITE (LAUNCH)
COMPARABLE
500 W/36 KW
SNAP-10A was launched from Vandenberg AFB by an
ATLAS Agena D rocket on April 3, 1965 into a polar orbit
at an altitude of approximately 1,300 km. It is in a retro-
grade orbit. Its nuclear electrical source, made up of
thermoelectric elements, was intended to produce over
500 watts of electrical power for one year. After 43 days,
an onboard voltage regulator within the spacecraft—unre-
lated to the SNAP reactor itself—failed, causing the reac-
tor core to be shut down. The reactor was left in a 700-
nautical-mile (1,300"km) earth orbit for an expected dura-
tion of 4,000 years.
An anomalous event in November 1979 caused the vehicle
to begin shedding an eventual 50 pieces. A collision has
not been ruled out and radioactive debris may have been
released
M O X E N E R G Y! 1 0 K W T E S T S AT E L L I T E
7
.
M O X E N E R G Y! 1 0 K W T E S T S AT E L L I T E
8
TIME OF FLIGHT MASS SPECTROMETER
Representative TOFMS 500 mm x 550 mm x 300 mm
Power Emitter
Power Receiver TOFMS
Plasma Deposition
Aeroshell
30 kM