Japans Mini-Solarkraftwerk im Weltraum soll bis 2025 Strom nach Hause bringen | Die Mission ist Teil eines Projekts namens OHISAMA (japanisch für Sonne), dessen Start im Jahr 2025 geplant ist.

From the article: Japan is gearing up to test its space-based solar power station next year. The plan is on track and aimed to help the world reduce its dependence on fossil fuels.

The plans were outlined at the International Conference on Energy from Space, held in London last week.

The mission is part of a project called OHISAMA (Japanese for Sun), which is on track for launch in 2025.

An adviser at the Japanese research institute Japan Space Systems, Koichi Ijichi, shared details about the country’s plans to make a mini space-based solar power plant. The plant will wirelessly transmit energy from low Earth orbit.

At the conference, Ijichi said, “It will be a small satellite, about 400 pounds (180 kilograms) that will transmit about 1 kilowatt of power from an altitude of 250 miles (400 kilometers).”

The planned demonstration is not anywhere close to the scale required for commercial use, however it still is a step forward.

For example, one-kilowatt of power can run a small household appliance, like a dishwasher, for around an hour, depending on its size.

As per the Ijichi, the spacecraft will use an onboard 22-square-foot (2 square meters) photovoltaic panel to charge a battery. The energy stored by the battery will then be transformed into microwaves and beamed towards an antenna on Earth.

Owing to the fact that spacecraft travel very fast, approximately 17,400 mph (28,000 km/h), the antennas on Earth will have to be spread over a distance of 25 miles (40 kilometers).