A 6-U Commercial Constellation for Space Solar Power Supply to Other Spacecraft

This poster presents early stage planning for a con-stellation of 6-U CubeSats which will collect power from the sun and supply it to other spacecraft in Earth orbit. Un-like solar panels (which have a known decay rate), antenna systems (such as would be required to receive microwave-transmitted power) do not substantially decay over the typical (or prospectively extended, under this model) spacecraft lifetime. This allows a spacecraft to be built for long-term operations (utilizing an electric propulsion tech-nology and/or a greater supply of conventional propellant) and receive power from a lower-cost utility provider spacecraft, which can be replaced on a known schedule. This lowers overall mission costs. The utility provider model is already well known an