Space Solar Power Demonstrator ends first in-space mission

Re:Space Solar Power Demonstrator ends first in-space mission by WJW on Tuesday January 16, 2024 @05:21PM (#39019971)

It's a demonstrator, trying to verify that the technology can work at all. The real version would be sent out to an orbit where there is always a direct path to the sun, but sending out spacecraft that far is much more expensive than just shooting them up to LEO.

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Re:Space Solar Power Demonstrator ends first in-space mission by londons_explore on Tuesday January 16, 2024 @05:25PM (#39020013)

But at those higher orbits, the size of the antenna necessary to get sufficient directionality gets waaaaaay bigger right?

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Re:Space Solar Power Demonstrator ends first in-space mission by WJW on Tuesday January 16, 2024 @05:32PM (#39020073)

There's lots of space up there though.

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Re:Space Solar Power Demonstrator ends first in-space mission by dredmorbius on Wednesday January 17, 2024 @02:05PM (#39031934)

Launch cost scales with orbital distance.

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Re:Space Solar Power Demonstrator ends first in-space mission by ordu on Wednesday January 17, 2024 @07:40AM (#39026909)

Yeah, and I presume this is one of the reasons they've chosen LEO. To cut costs of the experiment.

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