Aetherflux wants to move fast, too. The plan is to launch a demonstration of its technology in 2026, hence the war chest, which also includes $10 million<\/a> of Bhatt\u2019s own money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur goal is that we figure out what the shortest path is to being able to demonstrate this \u2014 to do a first breaking of the ground, so to speak, of power being transmitted from space to Earth, and it being useful for the first time for something,\u201d Bhatt told Christian Keil on the First Principles podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy view is you\u2019re not a space company until you\u2019ve got some stuff in space \u2014 until then, you\u2019re an aspiring space company,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bhatt and Aetherflux are part of a constellation of academic, government, and private efforts to get solar power from orbit to Earth, an idea that\u2019s been kicking around since author Isaac Asimov first floated it in 1941. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Recent strides in research labs, the development of reusable rockets<\/a>, and new support from space agencies may finally make space-based solar power a reality, but the difficulties are still very real \u2014 NASA itself threw some cold water on the idea in a January 2024 report<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe found that the space-based solar power designs \u2026 are 12 to 80 times more expensive than if you were going to have renewable energy on the ground,\u201d Erica Rodgers, the report\u2019s author, told attendees<\/a> at the 2024 AIAA SciTech Forum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unsurprisingly, supporters of the idea believe that NASA\u2019s conclusion is based on outdated assumptions and that advancements in technology and cheaper launches make their vision more achievable than ever before. Bhatt wants to lead the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a way, pursuing space-based solar power seems like a no-brainer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The sun is a dynamo, radiating enough energy in a single hour to power our entire planet, and the cost of harvesting that energy has dropped dramatically in recent years \u2014 today, solar is the cheapest option<\/a> for generating new electricity on the utility-scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, there are inherent challenges that limit our ability to take advantage of solar power. Sunlight is not available 24\/7, wanes due to the very tilt of the planet, and some regions do not receive enough of it ever to make solar a truly viable option. Storing solar power<\/a> to be used later has proven difficult and expensive, as is transporting it from sunnier locations to shadier ones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While researchers are working on overcoming those challenges, some simply can\u2019t be fixed through engineering \u2014 not if we\u2019re trying to harvest solar power from Earth<\/em>, anyway. In orbit, though, the sun is always shining. Bombarded by more intense solar energy, satellites high enough to never know night could beam this solar power back down to us via microwave or laser, an endless wellspring from a harnessed star.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Several groups have taken fresh notice of the potential for space-based solar power and invested in its development, with promising results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2015, JAXA, Japan\u2019s national space agency, made a breakthrough<\/a> in the field when it used microwaves to send a small amount of power from a transmitter in its lab to a receiver 170 feet away, proving for the first time that a substantial amount of energy \u2014 enough to power an electric teakettle \u2014 could be transmitted wirelessly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A perhaps even more impressive step came in March 2023 when Caltech researchers finally took the technology to space with their Microwave Array for Power-transfer Low-orbit Experiment<\/a>, which can be shortened to the catchier \u201cMAPLE.\u201d Once in orbit, the team\u2019s Space Solar Power Demonstrator satellite<\/a> was able to use microwaves to beam solar energy wirelessly to both a receiver on another part of the spacecraft and<\/em> all the way to Earth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Space-based solar power was finally a reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Aetherflux-Team.jpg?quality=75&w=3840\")
Closer to the source<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Aetherflux-Ground-Station-Still.png?quality=75\")
Building momentum<\/h3>\n\n\n\n