0883-6272/86 + .00 Copyright 4 1986 SUNSAT Energy Council UPDATE ON THE SOLAR POWER SATELLITE TRANSMITTER DESIGN WILLIAM C. BROWN Raytheon Co. Microwave and Power Tube Division Foundry Avenue, Box 33 Waltham, Massachusetts 02154, USA Abstract — A number of remaining problems in the conceptual design of the transmitting antenna for the Solar Power Satellite have been solved as a result of additional technology development. Much of the technology was derived from the conceptual design of a ground- based transmitting antenna for beaming power to a high altitude airship or airplane. INTRODUCTION It has been seven years since the inception of the DOE/NASA Satellite Power System Concept Development and Evaluation Program, and four years since its conclusion (1). At the conclusion of the study both the Office of Technology Assessment and the National Research Council made studies of the results and made recommendations. Both groups recommended that the Solar Power Satellite be periodically reassessed in terms of advances in the generic technologies upon which the concept depends. This paper relates to an updating of the design of the satellite transmitting antenna array for consideration in such a reassessment. Although much of the conceptual design of the satellite phased array transmitter based upon the use of a crossed-field device, the magnetron, had been completed, there remained some unresolved problems. In the last four years, there have been some major developments in microwave technology that seem to have resolved these problems, while at the same time suggesting basic improvements in other aspects of the transmitter design. To understand the importance of the recent new developments, they must be related to various levels of integration of the transmitting antenna array. The lowest level is the radiating module which consists of an area of slotted waveguide radiator, the microwave generators which feed it, and the control circuitry. The next level of integration is the “subarray” which consists of a large number of radiating modules. The subarrays are then integrated into the transmitting antenna array. These recent developments have led to the virtual completion of the conceptual design of the radiating module. The advances may also impact the subarray level in that there is now a straightforward way to refocus the subarray on the ground rectenna even though the subarray face may be oriented several degrees from physically facing the ground rectenna. This should allow much larger subarrays while eliminating the need of mechanical jacks to reorient the subarrays and reducing the cost of the retrodirective array pointing system.
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