While not from NASA, I think this is interesting.
 
Japan space scientists make wireless energy breakthrough
 
AFP
 
March 12, 2015 6:19 AM
 
Electricity gained from solar panels in space could one day be beamed to earth
 
Tokyo (AFP) - Japanese scientists have succeeded in transmitting energy
wirelessly, in a key step that could one day make solar power generation in
space a possibility, an official said Thursday.
 
Researchers used microwaves to deliver 1.8 kilowatts of power -- enough to run
an electric kettle -- through the air with pinpoint accuracy to a receiver 55
metres (170 feet) away.
 
While the distance was not huge, the technology could pave the way for mankind
to eventually tap the vast amount of solar energy available in space and use
it here on Earth, a spokesman for The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
(JAXA) said.
 
"This was the first time anyone has managed to send a high output of nearly
two kilowatts of electric power via microwaves to a small target, using a
delicate directivity control device," he said.
 
JAXA has been working on devising Space Solar Power Systems for years, the
spokesman said.
 
Solar power generation in space has many advantages over its Earth-based
cousin, notably the permanent availability of energy, regardless of weather or
time of day.
 
While man-made satellites, such as the International Space Station, have long
since been able to use the solar energy that washes over them from the sun,
getting that power down to Earth where people can use it has been the thing of
science fiction.
 
But the Japanese research offers the possibility that humans will one day be
able to farm an inexhaustible source of energy in space.
 
The idea, said the JAXA spokesman, would be for microwave-transmitting solar
satellites -- which would have sunlight-gathering panels and antennae -- to be
set up about 36,000 kilometres (22,300 miles) from the earth.
 
"But it could take decades before we see practical application of the
technology -- maybe in the 2040s or later," he said.
 
"There are a number of challenges to overcome, such as how to send huge
structures into space, how to construct them and how to maintain them."
 
The idea of space-based solar power generation emerged among US researchers in
the 1960s and Japan's SSPS programme, chiefly financed by the industry
ministry, started in 2009, he said.
 
Resource-poor Japan has to import huge amounts of fossil fuel. It has become
substantially more dependent on these imports as its nuclear power industry
shut down in the aftermath of the disaster at Fukushima in 2011.
 
 
Regards,
 
Roger

--- D'Bridge 3.99
 * Origin: NCS BBS - Houma, LoUiSiAna (1:3828/7)