Rocket Experiment METS Microwave Energy Transmission in Space N. KAYA, H. MATSUMOTO1 & R. AKIBAtf SUMMARY A METS (Microwave Energy Transmission in Space) rocket experiment is being planned by the SPS (Solar Power Satellite) Working Group at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) in Japan for the forthcoming International Space Year (ISY),1992. The METS experiment is an advanced version of our MINIX rocket experiment [1-7]. This paper describes the conceptua I design for the METS rocket experiment. Aims are to verify the fesibility of a newly developed microwave energy transmission system designed for use in space and to study nonlinear effects of the microwave energy beam on space plasma. A high power microwave (936 W) will be transmitted by a newphased-array antenna from a mother rocket to a separate target (daughter rocket) through the Earth’s ionospheric plasma. The active phased-array system has the capability of being able to focus the microwave energy at any spatial point by individually controlling the digital phase shifters. Introduction The concept of a Solar Power Satellite (SPS), first proposed by Dr. Peter E. Glaser [8], is potentially an optimal solution to the problem of the ever-increasing demand for energy without destroying the environment of our mother planet. Our goal is, however, not only to construct such SPSs to supply power to Earth, but also for establishing the technology necessary to create power supplies for long-term space structures such as space stations, space factories, and space cities. These will demand large amounts of electric power, preferrably without incorporating heavy solar cells. If electricity could be somehow beamed at such structures, it could be captured through simple and light-weight rectantennas. Thus the idea is to develop an effective energy transmission system able to transmit microwave energy accurately towards the target consumers, some of which may be moving quickly in their orbits. We have developed a microwave energy transmitter for a rocket experiment, called METS (Microwave Energy Transmission in Space), using a semiconductor power amplifier connected to arrays of antennas. A research group (Chief: Prof. H. Matsumoto) was organised as part of ISAS’s SPS Working Group (Chairman: Prof. K. Miura) to promote the METS rocket experiment. We describe our conceptual design for METS in this paper. f Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 229 and Department of Instrumentation, Kobe University, Nada, Kobe 657 ft Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 229 and Radio Atmospheric Science Center, Kyoto University, Uji, Koyoto 611
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTU5NjU0Mg==