The power problem in orbit

Google, SpaceX and startups plan to build data centers in space, but they need reliable power sources. Star Catcher, a Jacksonville, Florida startup, aims to solve this with laser-based energy transmission.

How Star Catcher's system works

The company's satellites gather sunlight using lenses, refine it into specific wavelengths, then emit a laser beam to transmit power to other satellites. This can provide up to ten times more power than diffuse sunlight.

A decades-old idea becomes practical

Isaac Asimov described space-based solar power in nineteen forty-one and NASA studied it in the nineteen seventies. Falling launch costs now make orbital industries economically feasible, says Max Planck Institute researcher Hanieh Fattahi.

Strong backing for the venture

Star Catcher announced a sixty-five million dollar funding round earlier this year and won a thirty million dollar award from the US Space Force. The company has ten power purchase agreements and forty letters of intent from prospective buyers.

This week's orbital test

Star Catcher's Protostar satellite launches this week aboard a SpaceX rocket alongside Google's first space-based data center. It will beam energy to an untethered cubesat, the first time lasers transmit power between two untethered objects in space.

Proven ground performance

Star Catcher set a ground-based power-beaming record last year, delivering more than one kilowatt to off-the-shelf solar panels, enough to power a microwave. This exceeds a previous mark set by DARPA.

Challenges remain for space deployment

The Naval Research Laboratory's twenty twenty-three space laser test operated for one hundred days but achieved only eleven percent efficiency. Fattahi says efficiency, tracking systems, heat management and long-term durability in vacuum must be solved for viability.

Rush's vision for space infrastructure

Star Catcher CEO Andrew Rush says the company is in the crawl phase but heading toward walking and running. He views the satellites as transformational for the space sector, comparable to reusable launch vehicles in their impact.

“I view what we're building as transformational for the space sector as reusable launch vehicles.”