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Drudge Retort: The Other Side of the News
Sunday, June 22, 2025

When Baiju Bhatt stepped away from his role as chief creative officer at Robinhood last year, only those close to him could have predicted his next move: launching a space company built around tech that the aerospace industry has largely dismissed, and which might be more groundbreaking than anyone realizes.

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"His solution is both far smaller and more nimble, he suggested.

Most notably, instead of massive microwave antennas that require precise phase coordination, Aetherflux's satellites will use fiber lasers, essentially converting solar power back into focused light that can be precisely targeted at receivers on the ground.

"We take the solar power that we collect from the sun with solar panels, and we take that energy and put it into a set of diodes that turn it back into light," Bhatt said. "That light goes into a fiber where there's a laser, which then lets us point that down to the ground."

The idea is to launch a demonstration satellite in June of next year."

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Also:

www.aetherflux.com

"In 1941, writer Isaac Asimov introduced the world to space solar power. The idea proposes capturing the sun's energy in space and beaming it to Earth. The sun delivers more energy to Earth in an hour than humanity uses in an entire year. And unlike on Earth, sunlight in space is more powerful, available day and night, and unaffected by weather."

#1 | Posted by Corky at 2025-06-21 05:18 PM | Reply

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"We take the solar power that we collect from the sun with solar panels, and we take that energy and put it into a set of diodes that turn it back into light," Bhatt said. "That light goes into a fiber where there's a laser, which then lets us point that down to the ground."

Not a new concept - ask 'Willard Whyte'.

www.youtube.com - James Bond - Diamonds are Forever - Baja? I haven't got anything at Baja!

Or more recently:
www.nbcnews.com - Solar Lasers Not Just for James Bond - NBC, 2011-09-19

en.wikipedia.org - Space-based solar power

"Various SBSP proposals have been researched since the early 1970s, but as of 2014 none is economically viable with the space launch costs. Some technologists propose lowering launch costs with space manufacturing or with radical new space launch technologies other than rocketry.

Besides cost, SBSP also introduces several technological hurdles, including the problem of transmitting energy from orbit."
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#2 | Posted by CutiePie at 2025-06-22 09:11 PM | Reply

lol

#3 | Posted by billy_boy at 2025-06-22 09:28 PM | Reply

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