R

adio waves can benefit the welfare

of humanity through other purposes
than communications. Microwave
power transmission (MPT) is one of
the new technological frontiers. So-
lar power satellites (SPS) will pro-
vide a clean and limitless energy resource from space
through this technique. This article answers the fun-
damental question of why we need to develop the
SPS from a viewpoint of critical global issues for
mankind. It then reviews SPS research, mainly in Ja-
pan, in the 1980s and 1990s. These efforts include two
MPT rocket experiments; a microwave- driven air-
plane experiment; and MPT technology develop-
ments, concepts, and systems studies of the SPS. A
summary of recent research committee activities on
SPS and a road map of future SPS research plans in
Japan concludes the article.

The Demand for SPS in the 21st Century

SPS depend on a new utilization of radio waves as
a method of transmitting electric power to a dis-
tant place. Radio has expanded the horizon of hu-
man activity in modern life and is now an
indispensable media to our daily life. Its main ap-
plication in the last century has been telecommu-
nications and has been fully utilized for mobile
communications, as well as radio links among
Hiroshi Matsumoto computers and computer-controlled systems.
However, radio waves can also be used for other
purposes, such as power transmission. In the last
century, mankind experienced an explosive in-
crease of both standard of living (SoL) and popu-
lation, despite two world wars. This explosive
increase inevitably requires an exponential in-
crease in the consumption of energy, food, and
material resources as the population increases
exponentially. This has led us to today’s global
crises, such as global warming, environmental
change, and the rapid decrease of fossil reservoirs.
Figure 1 schematically shows a simple calculation
of the lack of resources to maintain human civili-
zation in 2050. The upper panel shows that the
consumption of resources for living in a relative
unit of “SoL ton” at the present population in de-
veloped countries is approximately 1 billion and
in developing countries is 10 billion, while the SoL
in the developed countries is ten times higher than
that in developing countries. Representing the
SoL in developing countries as a SoL-ton unit, the
total resources consumed by humans today, in-
cluding energy, food, and materials for daily and
© RASC, KYOTO UNIVERSITY

industrial demands, is 15 billion SoL-tons. By the

middle of the 21st century, the population in de-
veloping countries will reach 9 billion, and their

H. Matsumoto is with Kyoto University in Kyoto, Japan.

36 ISSN 1527-3342/02/$17.00©2002 IEEE December 2002

SoL will reach at least three times higher than now. lengths to beam down toward a point target or small-
This means that the total necessary resources needed area target.
to maintain the world economy is 37 billion SoL-tons. From the beginning of the 20th century on, however,
This demand—more than 250% of today’s amount— radio has been used mainly for transmitting intelligence
shall not be reached without the destruction of the en- and information, and very few attempts have been made
vironment. It is important to stress that the demand of to transmit electric power over radio, though Yagi and
electric power will increase at a much higher pace than Uda [3] predicted a technical feasibility of power trans-
other energy demands as the world is industrialized mission on radio waves, foreseeing the era of microwave
and computerized. availability. The reason for a lack of interest in radio
To maintain human welfare and the current SoL, or
to ever avoid disaster during this century, energy,
food, and environmental issues should be seriously
Research has been carried out to look
discussed and solved. The increasing demand for elec- into the possibility of building a power
tricity, on the other hand, conflicts with the demand station in space to transmit electricity to
for a clean environment, due to fossil-based power
plants. Therefore, the dilemma of these two demands
Earth by way of radio waves—the SPS.
needs to be overcome during the present century. Elec-
tricity has been generated in several ways: hydroelec- power transmission in the first half of the 20th century
tric, fossil thermal, and atomic power. However, some was the unavailability of the necessary microwave tech-
of these are the causes of environmental pollution is- nology. Microwave technology was invented and devel-
sues around the globe. Under these circumstances, re- oped rapidly in the latter half of the last century and
search has been carried out to look into the possibility utilized mostly for communications and radar. At the
of building a power station in space to transmit elec- close of World War II, engineers and scientists re-exam-
tricity generated in space to Earth by way of radio ined the original Tesla idea of transmitting electric
waves—the SPS. (The SPS is known by a variety of power to a distant place via radio as high-power micro-
other names that we do not use in this article, includ- wave technology became available.
ing the satellite power system, the space power sys- The post-war history of research on radio power
tem, space solar power, the solar power station, the transmission is well documented by Brown [4], who
space solar power station, and the space solar power was a pioneer of practical MPT. It was Brown who first
system.) The SPS is a clean, large-scale, stable electric succeeded in demonstrating a microwave-powered he-
power source. licopter in 1964, using 2.45 GHz in the frequency range
of 2.4-2.5 GHz reserved for the industrial, scientific,
A Review of Radio and medical (ISM) applications of radio waves [5]. A
Power Transmission Research microwave-to-dc power-conversion device, called a
Nicola Tesla first conceived of the idea of radio power “rectenna,” was also invented by Brown [6]-[8] and
transmission about a century
ago [1], [2]. He attempted to
distribute 10,000 hp under a
tension of 100 MV. He said,
“This energy will be collected
all over the globe, preferably
in small amounts, ranging
from a fraction of one to a few
horse-power. One of its chief
uses will be the illumination
of isolated homes.” He actu-
ally built a gigantic coil that
was connected to a 200-ft-
high mast with a 3-ft-diame-
ter ball at its top. He fed 300
kW to the Tesla coil, resonated
at 150 kHz. The RF potential
at the top sphere reached 100
MV; however, his experiment
was not successful, due to the
unavailability of radio waves
with sufficiently short wave- Figure 1. Predicted absolute lack of resources for human civilization in 2050.

December 2002 IEEE magazine 37

 used for the microwave-powered helicopter. The high-
est record (84%) of microwave-to-dc conversion effi-
ciency was achieved in the demonstration of MPT in
Tesla first conceived of the idea of
radio power transmission about a
century ago.
1975 at the JPL Goldstone Facility [9]. Power was suc-
cessfully transferred from the large parabolic transmit-
ting antenna dish to the distant rectenna site over a
distance of 1.6 km. The dc output was 30 kW.
Glaser [10] proposed an idea to place an SPS in geo-
stationary orbit. This stimulated the U.S. National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and
the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and resulted in
their feasibility study of the SPS in the late 1970s. How-
ever, SPS research was suspended following the recom-
mendation by the National Research Council (NRC),
which was basically in favor of the SPS concept but rec-
ommended the suspension from an economical point
of view due to the immaturity of available technolo-
gies. Since then, SPS research in the United States has
been de-emphasized during the 1980s and the former
half of the 1990s. In the 1980s and 1990s, the center of
MPT technologies research shifted to Japan.
MINIX and ISY-METS Rocket Experiments
A possible nonlinear plasma-wave excitation in the ion-
osphere caused by a high-power microwave beam was
theoretically examined by Matsumoto [11], [12]. To
evaluate this nonlinear loss due to the excitation of
plasma waves, a rocket experiment of MPT in space,
the Microwave Ionosphere Nonlinear Interaction eX-
periment (MINIX), was conducted in 1983 [13], [14].
Figure 2 shows an artist’s conception of the MINIX and
Figure 2. The MINIX rocket experiment and the measured plasma wave dynamic spectrum. The shaded area in the spec-
trum shows the enhancement of the plasma waves due to the high power microwave power beam.
38 IEEE magazine
one of the experimental results on plasma wave dy-
namic spectrum influenced by high-power microwave
transmission in ionospheric plasma. The shaded part
indicates the enhancement of the plasma wave spec-
trum by the injected microwave beam from the
nondisturbed ionospheric natural plasma-wave spec-
trum [15]. The enhancement of plasma waves near the
local electron cyclotron frequency and electron plasma
frequency can be clearly seen. The second rocket exper-
iment, called the International Space Year-Microwave
Energy Transmission in Space (ISY-METS), was carried
out in 1993 [16]-[18] with an advanced microwave
transmitter. In the MINIX, the antenna for transmission
was a simple truncated waveguide, while phased-array
antenna paddles were used in the ISY-METS to control
the beam direction.
The MINIX rocket experiment was the first attempt
of MPT in space. These two rocket experiments, MINIX
and ISY-METS, provided not only unique and impor-
tant results on the nonlinear wave-wave interaction in
ionospheric plasma caused by a strong microwave
power beam but also the opportunity to prove that high
MPT in space was possible (Figure 2). In order to evalu-
ate the loss of microwave power in the beam due to the
nonlinear plasma-wave excitation, computer simula-
tions have been carried out as well [19]-[23]. Another
type of plasma instability of self-focusing of the micro-
wave beam in the ionosphere was also studied by
Shinohara, et al. [24]. The combination of the results of
the rocket experiment and the computer simulations
have revealed that the loss through plasma-wave exci-
tation is less than 1% of the total power of the transmit-
ted microwave power. These experiments and
simulations are documented in [20].
MILAX
A fuel-free microwave-driven airplane experiment was
first carried out in Canada. The project was named
(V)
Electronic
Cyclotron
5 Harmonic
Waves
Microwave ON
Langmuir
Wave
Microwave OFF
Plasma Frequency
0
0 5 10 15 (MHz)
Frequency
FH 2FH 3FH
December 2002
SHARP [25], [26]. The transmitting antenna was a para-
bolic antenna that chased the model airplane mechani-
cally. Another attempt of driving a model airplane with
microwave power, called the MIcrowave Lifted Air-
plane eXperiment (MILAX), was conducted in 1992 to
verify the capability of controlling the microwave
power beam towards the moving target. In the MILAX,
the transmtting antenna was phased-array, which
chased the airplane electronically [27]-[29]. A light-
weight rectenna with microstrip antennas was devel-
oped and used in the MILAX project [30]. The
automatic chasing of the airplane was achieved with a
system composed of two charge-coupled device (CCD)
cameras with a capability of pattern recognition of the
airplane image and computer-controlled phase shifters
of the phased-array power transmitter. Figure 3 shows
a view of the MILAX project and the model airplane
with microstrip rectenna antennas on its bottom.
Development of a Microwave-to-DC
Conversion Device
One of the most well-known devices for back conver-
sion of microwave to dc is a rectenna, which is com-
posed of a receiving antenna, an input low-pass filter, a
rectifying circuit, and an output smoothing filter. The
input filter is needed to suppress reradiation of high
harmonics that are generated by nonlinear characteris-
tics of the rectifying diode. Research and development
of rectennas in Japan was initiated in 1980 (e.g., [31],
[32]) and has been continued (e.g., [33], [34], and refer-
ences therein). This includes a high-power rectenna
with a microstrip antenna [32], a rectenna with dual po-
larization [35], and rectennas durable enough for
high-power input [34]. Research has been conducted on
Figure 3. MILAX: microwave power was fed to the airplane with lightweight rectennas by a computer-controlled phase-ar-
ray antenna installed on the roof of a transmitter car. The right panel shows the airplane with microstrip antennas on its bot-
tom. This demonstration experiment left a journalistic impact in Japan and, thereby, played a milestone role in favor for the
progress of the SPS project.
December 2002
the rectenna’s array to investigate the connection
method of rectenna output for best efficiency [36]-[39].
The other device for back conversion to dc from micro-
wave is a cyclotron wave converter (CWC). The CWC is
a microwave tube device which converts the input mi-
crowave power into dc power. In the CWC, input mi-
crowave power is first converted into the kinetic energy
of an electron beam through cyclotron resonance, then
the kinetic energy is restored in the form of dc power by
decelerating the electron beam. The efficiency of the
CWC [40] is comparable to or higher than the world re-
cord of the rectenna efficiency (90%) achieved by
Brown [4]. Collaborative research between the Moscow
State University of Russia and Kyoto University of Ja-
pan was initiated in the late 1990s and proposed a
higher efficiency CWC [41].
Development of the
Retrodirective Transmitter
A retrodirective power-transmitting system was devel-
oped in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Figure 4 shows a
photograph of a 90-W microwave power transmitter
with retrodirective capability that was developed in Ja-
pan in 1987 [42].
The 90-W microwave transmitter, with seven dipole
antennas, has a capability of transmitting a microwave
beam automatically in the direction of incoming pilot
signals. A unique feature of the developed unit is its
new phase conjugate circuit (PCC) that uses two asym-
metric pilot frequencies to delete the 2nπ ambiguity in
the phase comparison.
Figure 5 shows another retrodirective-type trans-
mitter that uses a pilot signal with one-third the trans-
mitting frequency. This simplifies the system, though
IEEE magazine 39
 the pilot signal receiver antenna occupies a larger area
in the system antenna. Figure 5 shows the retrodirective
system developed by Kyoto University and Nissan Mo-
tor Corporation Ltd. (currently the IHI Aerospace Cor-
poration Ltd.). The latter system has automatic beam
control that chases the moving target, supplying about
80 W. The power beam frequency is 2.45 GHz with a pi-
lot signal of 815 MHz.

Development of the PCM and SPORTS

Since the first proposal of the SPS in 1968, many concep-
tual designs have been studied and proposed. Examples
(a)
include the SPS reference system (NASA/DOE, USA),
wt + ∆w
φt + 2 ∆φ the SPS 2000 (Institute of Space and Astronautical Sci-
wt + 2 ∆w BPF ence (ISAS), Japan [43], [44]), the Sun Tower [45], [46],
φt
BPF ×2 and recent Japanese models (National Administration of
φt + ∆φ 2φt + 2 ∆φ Space Development Agency (NASDA) Model [47], [48];
2 wt Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI)
−φt
Model [48], [49]). Some of the designs are based on a mi-
(b)
crowave power transmitter with microwave tubes such
Figure 4. A retrodirective microwave transmitter with a as klystron and traveling-wave tube (TWT). The elec-
seven-dipole antenna array developed by Kyoto University, tronic tubes are characterized by their high-efficiency
Kobe University, and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation in 1987. (more than 70%) and high-power output (normally of
the order of several hundreds of watts to kilowatts).

A X2
ωpt
(816 MHz)
2 ωpt
(1,632 MHz)

B Mixer BPF x3 B
ωpt − φp 3ωpt + 3φp
2 ωpt − (ωpt − φp) ωpt + φp
(816 MHz) = ωtt + φt
2 ωpt + (ωpt − φp) (816 MHz)
(2.45 GHz)

Pilot Signal: 815 MHz : ωp

Power Frequency: 2.45 GHz : ωt = 3ωp

Figure 5. Rectrodirective power transmitter with a subharmonic pilot signal developed at Kyoto University with Nissan
Motor Co. Ltd. (1996).

40 IEEE magazine December 2002

However, the microwave power density at the transmit- phase stability for microwave beam control, though the
ting antenna array of the SPS will be 1 kW/m2 for a typi- magnetron has the big advantage of being mass pro-
cal 1-GW SPS with a transmitting antenna with an duced, resulting in its cost effectiveness.
aperture of 1-km diameter. If we use 2.45 or 5.8 GHz for A new magnetron-based, high-frequency stability
the MPT, the number of antenna elements per square microwave power transmitter was developed with a
meter is on the order of 100 or 400, respectively. There- cheap magnetron commonly used for home microwave
fore, the power allotted to the individual antenna ele- ovens. Brown proposed a concept to control the ampli-
ment is on the order of 10 or 2.5 W/element for a 2.45- or tude and phase of a magnetron (magnetron directional
5.8-GHz system, respectively. In these cases, we must amplifier) [51]. Using this design approach, Hatfield and
distribute the high power from one electronic tube to in- Hawkins [52] demonstrated a steerable beam. A
dividual antennas through a power divider. In order to phase-controlled magnetron (PCM) [53]-[55] has been
avoid the loss caused by the divider, we cannot divide developed, revising the concept. Frequency stabilization
the power into the tiny power level of 10 W or smaller. is achieved by a frequency-locking technique with
One way to reduce power division loss is to feed power phase-locked loop (PLL) feedback. The power output of
to clusters of antennas, i.e., to the subarrays. This system, the PCM could be suppressed to a couple hundred
however, requires the insertion of a phase shifter before watts, which is much smaller than that of the klystron
the individual antenna element in the subarray to attain adopted in the NASA-SPS reference system. The small
beam controllability. The phase shifters in the subarray output has the advantage of avoiding the power loss
are necessary to suppress grating lobes. The other de- due to the power division for power distribution to the
sign of the microwave power transmitter is the use of individual antenna element of a huge array for the SPS.
semiconductor amplifiers. If
the individual antenna ele-
ment is directly connected to Frequency Locking
Phase Controlled
the semiconductor amplifier High Power
Microwave
with a power level of the or- Phase /2 Directional (300 W~)
der of 10 W, power dividers Shifter Coupler
Reference
are not needed. However, the Signal (CW, ~1W) Magnetron
Onboard
efficiency of a semiconductor Computer
Attenuator,
amplifier is still below 40% Phase Adjuster
(Frequency Control)
(e.g., [50]) and is still expen-
LPF High Voltage
sive. TWTs can provide a low Source PLL-Like
power microwave of the or- Mixer Feedback
der of 100 W, but TWTs for
space use are also too expen-
Figure 6. PCM system with anode-current feedback.
sive for SPS.
Recent analysis shows that
the vacuum tube system is su- Sports 2.45 Kyoto University, 2000
perior to the semiconductor
system for MPT systems in Discrete Phase Control
terms of weight per unit
2.45 GHz
power, dc-to-microwave con- 2 kW
version efficiency, and total Rectenna Array
cost. Among microwave tubes,
the magnetron has many ad-
vantages compared to other
microwave devices. The mi- Solar Cells
crowave output power of 8.4 kW 2mφ
magnetrons can be much 12 × 8 Dipole Array
smaller than that of a klystron
adopted in the NASA-SPS ref-
erence system. Generally,
however, the frequency and
phase of a magnetron are not
stable. Therefore, magnetrons 12 PCMs 12−Element Horn Antenna
have been thought to be un- (2.45 GHz, 4 kW)
suitable for MPT for SPS,
which requires frequency and Figure 7. SPORTS-2.45 (developed at Kyoto University).

December 2002 IEEE magazine 41

 The RF-dc conversion efficiency of the PCM is much control a phase of the magnetron with PLL anode-
higher than that of a semiconductor amplifier, yield- current feedback. The phase of microwave in the de-
ing the range of 65-75%. The monochromaticity of the veloped PCM is achieved by an anode current feed-
frequency is improved by the frequency locking. We back (Figure 6).

SPRITZ
(Solar Power Radio Integrated Transmitter 2000)

Specifications
− Size (in mm)
• 2,000D × 2,300W × 2,850H
Sun
− Solar Simulator
• 133 × 75 W Halogen Lamps Sunlight

− SPRITZ

• Solar Cells Solar Power

− Output > 166 W Satellite System
(in Orbit)
2,850 mm

(Efficiency: about 15%)

• Microwave Transmitter
− Frequency 5.770 GHz
− Output 25 W
− Active Phased Array Microwave
Antenna (10 × 10 Elements)
− Phase Control 3 b
− Power Receiving Antenna (Rectenna)
• 1,848 Rectennas and LED Rectenna
2,0
00 mm (on the Ground)
mm 00
2,3

Physical Parameters and Block Diagram of SPRITZ

Parameters of SPRITZ Solar Panel

Frequency 5.770008 MHz DC Regulator

PLL
Interface Board

Frequency Stability 1.4 ppm DC Power Source Synthesizer

Radio Format NON Buffer

Amplifier
Modulation Power
Techniques Non-Modulated CW
Phase Control Amplifier

TX Power 25 W (44 dBm) Feeder Network

PIN Diodes
Microstrip Antenna Array
TX Antenna Phase Shifter Phase Shifter ... Phase Shifter Phase Shifter
(10 × 10)
Microstrip ...
7.3°
Beam Width (Changed by Phase Control) Array Antenna
Loss if Feed Line 6 dB Microwave
Microstrip
Maximum 17.6 dBi
TX Antenna Gain Antenna
(Changed by Phase Control)
LED
TX EIRP 58 dBm Rectenna
Right Handed Circular
Polarization Polarization
Schottky
Barrier
Spurious −77.5 dBc
Diode

Figure 8. The SPRITZ module for MPT developed by Kyoto University, NASDA, Mitsubishi Heavy Industry Co.(MHI),
Shimiz Co., Sekisui Jushi Co., and Mitsubishi Research Institute (MRI) in 2000.

42 IEEE magazine December 2002

SPORTS and SPRITZ
The PCM was used to develop a system called the
Space Power Radio Transmission System (SPORTS).
Two systems of the SPORTS have been developed for
two frequencies, 2.45 and 5.8 GHz, at Kyoto University.
Figure 7 shows the SPORTS-2.45. The weight-per-watt
of the SPORTS is 35 g/W. This value will be improved
to less than 20 g/W in the near future. The dc-RF con-
version efficiency of the PCM exceeds 75% with an out-
put power of 300 W.
The SPORTS-2.45 is composed of solar panels, a mi-
crowave transmitter subsystem, a near-field scanner,
and a microwave receiver (rectenna array) (Figure 7).
The solar panels provide 8.4-kW dc power to the micro-
wave transmitter subsystem composed of an active
phased array with 12 PCMs. The transmitted micro-
wave power and frequency are 4 and 2.45 GHz, respec-
tively. The SPORTS-2.45 system has two different types
of antenna arrays. One is a 12-horn antenna array with
low power loss but limitedly narrow beam-scanning
capability. The other is a 96-antenna array with 12
eight-way power dividers and 96 phase shifters with
which the microwave beam can be scanned into much
wider directions. The SPORTS-2.45 was designed as a
test bed for a space MPT experiment. The SPORTS-5.8
is composed of several transmitting subsystems and
rectenna arrays. The main microwave generator is com-
posed of nine PCMs based on newly developed
magnetrons with a 5.8-GHz frequency. Four-stage,
eight-way power dividers are developed to distribute
microwave power from one PCM to 32 microstrip an-
tenna elements. It can also be connected to three para-
bolic antennas that form a one-dimensional (1-D)
phased array of parabolic antennas. A revised PCM
with PLL and a low-loss power phase shifter system are
used for the SPORTS-5.8. The SPORTS-5.8 adopts a
retrodirective system with a pilot signal modulated
with a spread spectrum [56]. Both SPORTS-2.45 and
SPORTS-5.8 are developed to simulate the whole
power conversion process for the SPS, including solar
cells, microwave oscillators (PCMs), transmitting an-
tenna array(s), and a rectenna system. These are used to
improve the efficiency at each part of the total system.
Another MPT system recently developed by a team
of Kyoto University, NASDA, and industrial compa-
nies is an integrated unit called the Solar Power Radio
Integrated Transmitter (SPRITZ), developed in 2000.
This unit is composed of a solar cell panel, microwave
generators, transmitting array antennas, and a receiv-
ing rectennas array in one package (Figure 8). The solar
panel, microwave generator, and transmitting antenna
are packed in one hexagonal box, the top and bottom of
which are covered by the solar panel and transmitting
antenna array. A photo and its block diagram with its
physical parameters are depicted in Figure 8. The fre-
quency of the microwave power beam is 5.77 GHz. The
microwave beam can be steered by controlling the 3-b
December 2002
phase shifters attached to each transmitting antenna.
This integrated unit could be a prototype of a larger
scale experimental module in orbit, as depicted in Fig-
ure 9 [47].
Governmental Committee
Activities on the SPS in Japan
Figure 10 shows committee activities concerning SPS
feasibility studies in the 1980s and 1990s. The activity
had already started in 1979 when the NASA/DOE re-
port was issued. Since then, committee activities to sur-
vey the conceptual design and feasibility of the SPS
continued intermittently up to today. The most note-
worthy activities are the NASDA Committee and the
committee arranged by METI in 1998 and 2000, respec-
The SPS will be a central attraction of
space and energy technology in the
coming decades.
tively. The former provides a forum to study SPS con-
ceptual and technical feasibility at different levels of
components of the SPS. More than 140 scientists and
engineers are joining this committee activity under the
chairmanship of Matsumoto. The production of the
SPRITZ was one of the activities of the NASDA com-
mittee. The latter committee studies the key technolo-
gies towards the realization of the SPS project, mainly
from a viewpoint of an energy station [48]. The Japa-
nese government now recognizes the importance and
necessity of the SPS in the mid- and long-range plan-
ning of both energy and space programs.
Conclusion
The SPS will be a central attraction of space and en-
ergy technology in coming decades. At present, tech-
nological development of the MPT at 2.45 and 5.8 GHz
is still ongoing. However, the overall efficiency goal of
64% from dc provided by the solar panels to dc output
from the rectennas is not far away. The target of 80% at
Figure 9. An artist’s conception of integrating the hexago-
nal SPRITZ-type MPT unit to form a larger scale SPS [47].
IEEE magazine 43
 both transmitting and receiving systems is achievable
in the near future. However, large-scale retrodirective
power transmission has not yet been proven and
needs further development. Another important area
of technological development will be the reduction of
the size and weight of individual elements aboard the
space section of the SPS. SPS researchers in Japan are
interested in designing and launching an experimen-
tal power satellite with a scale of 10-100 kW in low
Earth orbit (LEO) to prove technical feasibility. In this
article we have mainly discussed only MPT. Other key
technologies to be considered include large-scale
transportation and robotics for the construction of
large-scale structures in space. Technical hurdles will
be removed in the coming one or two decades. The dif-
ficult issue of radio regulation is to be overcome with a
long-term philosophy of radio usage in this century. To
this end, a special working group was formed in 2002
within the International Union of Radio Science (URSI)
to have a serious discussion on this matter, including
communication engineers, SPS engineers, radio astron-
omers, and bioradio scientists. This working group
and the Scientific Committee on Telecommunications
within URSI will make an effort to contact the Interna-
tional Telecommunications Union, which is a regula-
tory organization of radio spectrum.
Acknowledgment
The author would like to express his thanks to Dr. N.
Shinohara and Prof. K. Hashimoto for their collabora-
tion on MPT and SPS research at Kyoto University.
Figure 10. Conceptual and feasibility studies of SPS in Japan through committee activities.
44 IEEE magazine
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IEEE magazine 45