All of these efforts were supported by OECIF. To NRL’s knowledge, the 2020 LEctenna demonstration was the first instance of wireless power transmission in orbit. SWELL expands on previous NRL-led power beaming efforts, such as SCOPE-O and PTROL that have demonstrated power beaming’s safety and feasibility on the ground, and a prior wireless power demonstration in orbit launched in 2019 and operated in 2020 called LEctenna. This allows energy to be sent at the speed of light. Power beaming delivers energy via electromagnetic waves, avoiding the need for wires or the transport of batteries or fuel.
Launch and spacecraft integration were supported by the Department of Defense Space Test Program. SWELL is sponsored by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition & Sustainment (OUSD (A&S)) Operational Energy Capability Improvement Fund (OECIF), with additional support from the Naval Center for Space Technology at NRL. “This is the first step towards addressing the challenges of implementing power beaming links for lunar exploration and other applications.” We’re ecstatic with its ongoing success in orbit,” said Chris DePuma, SWELL Program Manager. “Though small in scale, SWELL is a critical first step in the investigation of laser power beaming in space. To NRL’s knowledge, in addition to being the first laser power beaming demonstration in space, this also represents the highest power, longest distance, and most efficient power beaming demonstration in orbit of any type. The power beaming link distance is 1.45 meters. SWELL has been providing nearly continuously about 1.5 watts at the power beaming receiver’s output with an end-to-end efficiency around 11%, more than ten times the team’s efficiency goal. Department of Defense Space Test Program (STP) H9 mission. It resides on the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the U.S. Launched on March 14, 2023, this experiment represents the first successful instance of laser power beaming in space. Naval Research Laboratory’s (NRL) Space Wireless Energy Laser Link (SWELL) surpassed 100 days of successful on-orbit laser operations on June 29, 2023, coinciding with the NRL’s 100th birthday celebration.
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