Deep Ocean to Deep Space

October 17, 2009

And now, Wireless Batteries…

An article in  Currents magazine from the Texas A&M University Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering is on the investigations they are doing in Wireless Power Transmission that was featured on the Discovery Channel.  Back in the days when I was there it was just the Department of Electrical Engineering and wireless still meant “the radio” and you could use tape and a hole punch to correct your computer programs.

This research involves rectifying antennas which can produce large amounts of power beamed to them by microwave transmitters. Very useful for powering devices in remote locations where solar might not be feasible and other types of generation or transmission impossible. The the researchers envision huge solar collectors in geosync orbit collecting sunlight and beaming it back to earth.

I am sure they must be aware of the work done by Nikola Tesla in 1899-1900 but there was no mention of it. In those years he had a lab in Colorado Springs where he tried many expierments in high power radio transmissions and even picked up a patent or two. He was bad about not documenting his work and would have had more, like his rival Thomas Edison if he got his paper work done.

Wikipedia has pleantiful information on these efforts: Nikola Tesla

He envisioned satellites that would orbit the earth and send power back, long before we resolved the technical issues of getting up off this earth and into space. But he was convinced that there were others out there who might be coming here.  A great visionary, he makes good reading.