Edinburgh team working on solar lasers to power space missions
Inspired by bacteria, an international team of scientists, including researchers from Heriot-Watt University, are developing a new system for harvesting natural solar energy in space
A revolutionary new way to harvest energy in space by converting sunlight into laser beams. The hope is that this will enable the transmission of power over vast distances, for example between satellites or from satellites to bases on the Moon or even back to Earth. If it works, this new technology has a wide range of applications, opening up opportunities for Earth-based wireless power transmission and sustainable energy solutions, as well as helping to power future missions on the Moon and to Mars.
Photo by Bryan Goff
The project has been inspired by photosynthesis, the natural process by which plants, bacteria and other organisms convert light energy into chemical energy. With that in mind, the researchers will seek to extract, study and then repurpose light-harvesting antennas of certain photosynthetic bacteria that have evolved to survive in extremely low-light conditions.
This is very different from conventional semiconductor solar panels that convert sunlight into electricity. It’s hoped that building up from a sustainable organic platform inspired by biological systems will allow for replication in space and for the direct onward distribution of power without relying on an electric intermediary.
What’s more, such bacteria are among the natural world’s most efficient collectors of solar energy, with specialised molecular antenna structures that capture and absorb almost every photon of light they receive and then channelling its energy to a desired target location as part of their photosynthetic cycle.
The team will extract and study this light-harvesting machinery and then seek to repurpose it. At the same time, they will develop artificial versions of these structures as well as new laser materials that can work with both natural and artificial light-harvesters. These components will then be combined into a new type of laser material and tested in increasingly larger systems. The project will initially be conducted under laboratory conditions before testing and refining its suitability for deployment in space. They expect to have a first prototype ready for testing within three years.
The team at Heriot-Watt University are one of a number of partners involved in the programme, which includes reseatchers from the UK, Germany, Italy and Poland. They’ve been brought together by Accelerating Publishing Accessibility through Collaboration in Europe (APACE), which is jointly funded by the European Innovation Council and Innovate UK – the latter part of UK Research and Innovation.
Professor Erik Gauger from the Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences at Heriot-Watt University, who is leading the theoretical modelling aspects of the project, says: ‘Sustainable generation of power in space, without relying on perishable components sent from Earth, represents a big challenge. Yet living organisms are experts at being self-sufficient and harnessing self-assembly. Our project not only takes biological inspiration but goes one step beyond by piggybacking on functionality that already exists in the photosynthetic machinery of bacteria to achieve a breakthrough in space power.
‘Our APACE project aims to create a new type of laser powered by sunlight. Regular sunlight is usually too weak to power a laser directly but these special bacteria are incredibly efficient at collecting and channelling sunlight through their intricately designed light harvesting structures, which can effectively amplify the energy flux from sunlight to the reaction centre by several orders of magnitude. Our project will make use of this level of amplification to convert sunlight into a laser beam without relying on electrical components.
‘We already know it is possible to grow bacteria in space, for example through studies on the International Space Station. Some tough bacteria have even survived exposure to open space! If our new technology can be built and used on space stations, it could help to generate power locally and even offer a route to sending power to satellites or back to Earth using infrared laser beams.
‘This technology has the potential to revolutionise how we power space operations, making exploration more sustainable while also advancing clean energy technology here on Earth. All major space agencies have lunar or Mars missions in their plans and we hope to help power them.’
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