A reasonable separation distance for minimizing satellite weight is about 5 km, since cable weight (not included) increases linearly with distance. This distance is also sufficiently removed from the high traffic zone 1 to keep radiation levels tolerable for berthing vehicles. MICROWAVE POWER TRANSMISSION The transfer of energy by the use of microwave beams has been demonstrated twice: (1) A microwave-powered helicopter experiment in 1969, and (2) a 30 kW power transmission over a 1.6 km distance at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in 1977 (5,6). A microwave power transmission system was designed for the solar power satellite (SPS) concept which transmitted 5 GW of energy from geosynchronous orbit to a ground rectenna (7). Accordingly, transferring 100 kW or more of energy from a nuclear satellite to a nearby space station is within present state-of- the-art microwave technology. The microwave system for power transmission utilizes a circular phased array antenna with slotted waveguide radiators as shown in Fig. 6. Slotted waveguides have high-power handling capability and high transmission efficiency (low I2R losses). The DC-RF power converter tubes could be klystrons or magnetrons. Phase control can be provided by a number of techniques, including retrodirective phasing via a pilot beam signal from the space station, an interoferometer-type phasing scheme using multiple tones, or computer driven steering using sum/difference channel information.
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