Nov 12, 2025Star Catcher and Intuitive Machines just showed how lasers could power lunar rovers.Engineers joke they'd do unspeakable things for an extra watt on the Moon. But what if they had extra kilowatts? Watch Intuitive Machines' Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) drive by for a charge, and learn how space power beaming unlocks the Moon.Star Catcher, the space energy company, is building the first power grid in space. Using optical power beaming, the Star Catcher Network transmits concentrated solar energy directly to satellites’ existing solar arrays. Scale your available power by up to 10x with no hardware modifications required.In a recent demo at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (across the historic 2.8 mile [4.6 km] Launch and Landing Facility runway that the Space Shuttle used for landings), Star Catcher beamed energy via high-efficiency lasers to Intuitive Machines’ lunar terrain vehicle, proving that wireless optical power beaming can keep missions running in the Moon’s harshest environments, including the South Pole and permanently shadowed craters.The lunar South Pole is a prime target for NASA’s Artemis program and other international missions because of its potential water ice deposits, which could be turned into life support resources and rocket fuel. But it’s also one of the hardest places to operate: long lunar nights, extreme cold, and deep shadows make traditional solar panels and batteries heavy, complex, and limited.Star Catcher’s vision is an orbital energy grid that collects sunlight in space, converts it into laser power, and beams it down to standard solar panels on the surface working with no custom receivers — and no heavy, expensive, sprawling solar farms.During this test campaign, Star Catcher set the new world record for optical power beaming — surpassing DARPA's previous records showing that laser power beaming can deliver meaningful, scalable energy for extending lunar surface operations.Learn more:Intuitive Machines: www.intuitivemachines.comStar Catcher: www.star-catcher.com
Cross-post from Intuitive Machines threadSpace power beaming for lunar exploration | Intuitive Machines x Star CatcherQuote Nov 12, 2025Star Catcher and Intuitive Machines just showed how lasers could power lunar rovers.Engineers joke they'd do unspeakable things for an extra watt on the Moon. But what if they had extra kilowatts? Watch Intuitive Machines' Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) drive by for a charge, and learn how space power beaming unlocks the Moon.Star Catcher, the space energy company, is building the first power grid in space. Using optical power beaming, the Star Catcher Network transmits concentrated solar energy directly to satellites’ existing solar arrays. Scale your available power by up to 10x with no hardware modifications required.In a recent demo at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (across the historic 2.8 mile [4.6 km] Launch and Landing Facility runway that the Space Shuttle used for landings), Star Catcher beamed energy via high-efficiency lasers to Intuitive Machines’ lunar terrain vehicle, proving that wireless optical power beaming can keep missions running in the Moon’s harshest environments, including the South Pole and permanently shadowed craters.The lunar South Pole is a prime target for NASA’s Artemis program and other international missions because of its potential water ice deposits, which could be turned into life support resources and rocket fuel. But it’s also one of the hardest places to operate: long lunar nights, extreme cold, and deep shadows make traditional solar panels and batteries heavy, complex, and limited.Star Catcher’s vision is an orbital energy grid that collects sunlight in space, converts it into laser power, and beams it down to standard solar panels on the surface working with no custom receivers — and no heavy, expensive, sprawling solar farms.During this test campaign, Star Catcher set the new world record for optical power beaming — surpassing DARPA's previous records showing that laser power beaming can deliver meaningful, scalable energy for extending lunar surface operations.Learn more:Intuitive Machines: www.intuitivemachines.comStar Catcher: www.star-catcher.com
Using optical power beaming, the Star Catcher Network wirelessly transmits concentrated solar energy directly to client satellites' existing solar panels, enabling up to 10x more power generation than onboard systems alone — no retrofit required. This isn't Space Based Solar Power (SBSP) where solar energy is harvested in orbit and beamed to Earth. This is space-to-space wireless power beaming, enabled by advancements in optics, long-distance/high-power lasers, precision tracking, and more.
SPS for Lunar surface operations should be able to scale way down compared to any other use. The SPS in a 2 hour orbit should be able to "see" the receiver for about a quarter of the orbit. The SPS would need about an hour and a half of battery storage.
Quote from: redneck on 11/12/2025 09:58 pmSPS for Lunar surface operations should be able to scale way down compared to any other use. The SPS in a 2 hour orbit should be able to "see" the receiver for about a quarter of the orbit. The SPS would need about an hour and a half of battery storage.The ground station would also need the same battery storage, but also need four times the receiver area (to handle 100% of energy demand in 25% of time), and the satellite would need a correspondingly 4-times more powerful xmitter. I would assume that launching four "right sized" satellites would be cheaper and easier. (Hell, six for redundancy and to overlap pointing.)
Under this agreement, Loft will purchase power from the forthcoming Star Catcher Network to augment the power generation capabilities of its growing constellation of mission-agnostic satellite platforms. Loft offers a turnkey solution for deploying diverse customer payloads to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) onboard high-power, off-the-shelf satellites. With the ability to host a wide range of customer payloads, these satellites require significant and flexible amounts of electrical power — a demand that continues to grow as on-orbit operations become increasingly data-driven and computationally intensive.By accessing on-demand, scalable energy from Star Catcher, Loft will significantly improve its ability to accommodate high-power customer payloads.“Plugging into an external power source fundamentally changes how we think about our mission offering,” Loft Co-founder and COO Alex Greenberg said. “It boosts uptime for our customers’ payloads and processors, optimizes spacecraft performance, and ensures our constellation operates at full capacity.”The Star Catcher Network consists of modular Power Nodes that collect solar energy using advanced optical systems and refine it into wavelengths optimized for spacecraft solar panels. Concentrated beams of light are then wirelessly transmitted across space to customer spacecraft. With no retrofit required, the Star Catcher Network enables satellites to generate two to ten times more power than onboard systems alone, significantly improving uptime, performance, and revenue potential.
A few weeks ago, we hosted our inaugural Star Summit event for investors and customers to see firsthand the progress and promise of in-space power beaming.
Star Catcher Industries today announced it has been awarded a $1.25 million AFWERX Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II contract to advance critical subsystems for its first-of-its-kind orbital energy grid. The Department of the Air Force (DAF) faces an urgent need to augment satellite power generation to meet real-time operational demands and counter rapidly evolving threats from near-peer adversaries. Under this award, Star Catcher will mature the core space-to-space power beaming technologies of its orbital energy grid to enhance military readiness and enable next-generation defense capabilities.
This site is mentioned in the post that follows:https://www.star-catcher.com/QuoteUsing optical power beaming, the Star Catcher Network transmits concentrated solar energy directly to satellites’ existing solar arrays. Scale your available power by up to 10x with no hardware modifications required.
Using optical power beaming, the Star Catcher Network transmits concentrated solar energy directly to satellites’ existing solar arrays. Scale your available power by up to 10x with no hardware modifications required.
Quote from: catdlr on 11/12/2025 04:41 pmThis site is mentioned in the post that follows:https://www.star-catcher.com/QuoteUsing optical power beaming, the Star Catcher Network transmits concentrated solar energy directly to satellites’ existing solar arrays. Scale your available power by up to 10x with no hardware modifications required.I'd like to see their math on "up to" 10x.
Quote from: Twark_Main on 11/18/2025 08:41 pmQuote from: catdlr on 11/12/2025 04:41 pmThis site is mentioned in the post that follows:https://www.star-catcher.com/QuoteUsing optical power beaming, the Star Catcher Network transmits concentrated solar energy directly to satellites’ existing solar arrays. Scale your available power by up to 10x with no hardware modifications required.I'd like to see their math on "up to" 10x. Legacy customer array maximums seems like the limiter here, though the rest of the power system likely won't be happy over being overjuiced? You're not supposed to overheat or melt your customer...I wonder a bit about their optical chain, have they cracked solar pumped lasers in some way? That would very much push the needle in SPS optical technologies and reignite some interest in all optical SPS designs.
Quote from: Asteroza on 11/19/2025 02:32 amQuote from: Twark_Main on 11/18/2025 08:41 pmQuote from: catdlr on 11/12/2025 04:41 pmThis site is mentioned in the post that follows:https://www.star-catcher.com/QuoteUsing optical power beaming, the Star Catcher Network transmits concentrated solar energy directly to satellites’ existing solar arrays. Scale your available power by up to 10x with no hardware modifications required.I'd like to see their math on "up to" 10x. Legacy customer array maximums seems like the limiter here, though the rest of the power system likely won't be happy over being overjuiced? You're not supposed to overheat or melt your customer...I wonder a bit about their optical chain, have they cracked solar pumped lasers in some way? That would very much push the needle in SPS optical technologies and reignite some interest in all optical SPS designs.Likely they will tackle the max problem quite easily (it's just scheduling/math).
Overview Space booked a slot on a SpaceX Bandwagon-7 to test their Solar Power Transmitter. Mission is stating a flight in 2028: QuoteBerte said the company has booked a slot on SpaceX’s Bandwagon-7 rideshare mission launching in early 2028. Most of the satellite will be built in-house.Full article: https://spacenews.com/overview-energy-demonstrates-technologies-for-space-solar-power/
Berte said the company has booked a slot on SpaceX’s Bandwagon-7 rideshare mission launching in early 2028. Most of the satellite will be built in-house.
Our team installed Overview’s laser and optical systems on a Cessna Caravan and flew at an altitude of over 5,000 m (16,500 ft). On the ground, we installed a receiver of standard solar panels, the same kind used in utility-scale projects or homes.As the aircraft flew overhead, the system identified the receiver, locked onto it, and delivered power through an eye-safe beam. The panels converted that light into electricity in the same way they convert sunlight.
Legacy space solar energy concepts all fail more than one of these criteria. Microwaves raise safety, spectrum, and regulatory concerns and require dedicated receivers the size of towns. Orbital mirrors create disruptive light and offer only an hour or two of daylight extension. Narrow-beam lasers require expensive custom hardware and push up against safety limits as power increases.We converged on the one design that passes every test: a wide-beam, geosynchronous, near-infrared system that safely delivers power to existing solar projects on Earth. And to do that, we’re focused on optimizing it for real-world constraints, especially cost.[...]Our ongoing airborne program has already demonstrated safe, precise delivery of power from a moving aircraft to solar panels on the ground using the same optics and lasers that will fly in orbit. Next comes low Earth orbit in 2028. Commercial operations in geosynchronous orbit are targeted to begin in 2030 with the world’s first megawatt transmission from space. In the early 2030s, we’ll be capable of delivering more than a gigawatt of 24/7 clean energy anywhere on Earth.
