In 2003, NASA flew the very first aircraft power solely powered by the energy provided by a laser beam. Of course, the technology for running such an interesting experiment has been around for quite some time now. At the beginning of the 20th century, Tesla was building a tower that was suppose to transmit wireless power worldwide. Even if the tower and the technology were unsuccessful, the idea behind such a concept was not lost.
The first real transmission happened after World War 2 after the microwave technology was discovered. Wireless Power Transmission then became possible and led to new ideas such as a satellite that sends energy collected from the sun back to earth. This type of energy transfer was mainly used for drones and satellites.
What is interesting with such a technology is the fact that, with our current technologies, it is efficient at 76%. But of course, creating one of theses systems is extremely expensive. That is the reason why it has only been deployed in space or aircraft projects (like in satellites, drones or in the idea of the space elevator) and not for powering your car when you run out of battery. Closer to us, NASA was the first to power an aircraft with a laser for a flight in 2003. This opened the door for a lot of applications.
Today, a young start-up named Escape Dynamics is looking for a new way to send rockets into space. They plan on removing the costly and inefficient fuel that each spacecraft carries into space and replace it with a microwave-absorbing heat exchanger. As the electromagnetically-powered spaceship rises, it gets powered by a microwave beam that will provide energy to heat up the hydrogen in a fuel tank and power the rocket until it reaches orbit. All of the energy that will power the spacecraft comes from the electricity grid.
So what makes this new thing so powerful? Reduced risk, increased efficiency, reduced costs (from 5000$/Kg to about 150$/Kg), completely reusable spacecrafts and great use of renewable energy to power the whole thing. This looks awesome. On paper. But as with any big technological advantages, it comes with a cost. The R&D costs around 200 millions and the whole thing would cost around 1 billion dollars to implement. And all of the advantages are only expectations. Who knows what the real outcome will be?
But I think it's an amazing idea and that it could be a big step in helping us explore more of the universe. No one said such a dream would come at a low cost and if we are to discover and colonize our entire Solar System one day, then steps like theses are necessary. I look forward to seeing what they come up with in 10 years.
