Development of the verification model on the sandwich type of the Solar Power Satellite

我们提出了“三明治”概念的太阳能卫星（SPS），它由一个“三明治”结构的发电/发射机和大型反射器组成。三明治概念的主要好处是减少了沉重的长输电线路和旋转接头，因为太阳能电池直接和短时间连接到高功率放大器。大型反射器有一个可充气的结构，非常轻。因此，发射和生产的成本可以大大降低，三明治SPS概念看起来非常合理，足以实现。我们研制并制作了三明治式SPS的整体工作模型，并在休斯敦世界空间大会上展出。充气反射器具有结构轻、紧凑等优点，可以实现实用的SPS。该SPS模型中的反射器由充气管构成，由三轴机织复合材料CFRP制成，并涂铝薄膜。反射器可以有效地将太阳光集中在夹层模块的太阳能电池上。发电机/发射器三明治模块由25个太阳能电池和16个发射器模块组成。在发射机模块上安装一个f级或反f级放大器、移相器、导频信号相位检测电路和4个槽天线。f级和反f级放大器可以有效地将光伏产生的直流电转换为微波功率，效率高达50%。整流天线我们新开发了仅由金属和二极管组成的条形和同轴整流天线。它们由一个偶极天线、一个输入滤波器、一个整流二极管和一个输出滤波器组成。这些天线非常简单、便宜、坚固。阵列天线的RF-DC效率超过70%。

We have proposed the Solar Power Satellite (SPS) of the sandwich concept, which consists of a power generator/transmitter of the sandwich structure and large reflectors. The major benefit of the sandwich concept is that heavy long power transmission lines and a rotary joint are reduced, because the solar cells are directly and shortly connected to high power amplifiers. And the large reflectors have an inflatable structure and are very light. Thus, the cost for launch and production can be reduced very much and the sandwich SPS concept looks very reasonable enough to realized. We have developed and fabricated the total working model of the sandwich SPS, which was displayed at World Space Congress in Houston.1.Inflatable reflectorThe Inflatable reflectors have an advantage of a light and compact structure enough to realize the practical SPS. The reflectors in this SPS model are constructed with inflatable tubes, made from the CFRP of triaxial woven fabric composite, and thin film coated with aluminum. The reflectors can effectively concentrate the sunlight on the solar cells of the sandwich module.2.Power generator/transmitterThe sandwich module consists of 25 solar cells and 16 transmitter modules. A F-class or inverse F-class amplifier, a phase shifter, the circuit to detect phases of pilot signal, and 4 slot antennas are mounted on a transmitter module. The F-class and inverse F-class amplifiers can effectively convert electric DC power generated by photovoltics into microwave power at a high efficiency of 50%.3.RectennaWe have newly developed the bar-type and coaxial rectennas, which are composed only of metal and diode. They consist of a dipole antenna, an input filter, a diode for rectification, an output filter. These rectennas are very simple, cheap and tough. The RF-DC efficiency of arrayed rectennas is measured over 70%.