Value chain · CLM-0670
In plain terms
Caltech has two different space-solar-power efforts. One is a paper design that assumes a normal rocket-fuel-based trip to a high orbit. The other is a small test that actually flew, but only in low orbit near Earth, testing hardware pieces, not a trip to a higher orbit.
The claim as recorded
Two distinct Caltech-associated efforts must not be conflated: the peer-reviewed paper design (SRC-006, Mizrahi/Jahelka/Gdoutos et al., Joule 2025) targets GEO explicitly via a chemical Starship LEO-refuel-GTO-GEO transfer, matching the existing CLM-0181; the flown SSPD-1 demonstrator (launched 2023-01-03) flew in LEO at about 527 km and 97.5 deg inclination on Momentus's Vigoride-5 spacecraft, launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 (SRC-077 p.232), with the ALBA and DOLCE experiments alongside MAPLE (p.231-232); the Transporter-6 rideshare and the about 50 kg hardware mass rest on press material not held; its MAPLE payload was deployed for ten months, testing in the latter eight (SRC-077 p.232), and tested component hardware (a deployable structure, a PV-cell survivability coupon, a wireless power-beaming experiment) only.
Evidence behind this: T2 (SRC-006 paper design); T4/T5 (SSPD-1 press material)
Scope and limits
SSPD-1 is not evidence about GEO delivery, electric propulsion, or transfer-radiation effects of any kind; no technical post-flight paper was located for it here, so its figures rest on institutional press releases (T4/T5), weaker than the paper design's T2 peer-reviewed status.
What it assumes
Whether the SRC-006 paper's authors and the SSPD-1 mission team share personnel is not confirmed here; both are Caltech-affiliated space-solar-power efforts and may overlap, but shared authorship is not asserted here without checking author lists directly.
Where it comes from
, PDF p.12 (printed p.11): Starship GEO transport is described as "launch to low Earth orbit (LEO), refuel, transfer to geostationarySNR transfer orbital (GTO), and transfer to GEO" (the run-together word is printed so on the page). SRC-077 PDF p.7 (printed p.232): "MAPLE was launched into orbit on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on January 3rd, 2023 UTC"; "orbital height was approximately 527 km with an inclination of 97.5"; "MAPLE was integrated on the Vigoride-5 (V5) spacecraft built by Momentus Inc." Caltech press material: SSPD-1 "Space Solar Power Demonstrator," launched 2023-01-03 on a Momentus Vigoride tug via SpaceX Transporter-6, sun-synchronous LEO, approximately 7-month mission (press figure; SRC-077 p.232 gives MAPLE ten months deployed), approximately 50 kg (DOLCE deployable structure, ALBA PV-cell array, MAPLE wireless-power-transfer experiment). SRC-077 PDF p.7 / 232: "MAPLE was deployed for a total of ten months; testing took place during the latter eight months."
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-002 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-0670
CLM-0670, Energy Aperture, as of 2025 (paper design); 2023 (SSPD-1 mission).
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-006
- CLM-0179This 2025 paper's own numbers show that with today's technology, their space solar power design would cost about $7.78 per kWh - far more...CLM-0180The low headline cost figure in this paper depends on using a very low 2% discount rate borrowed from a US home-energy-efficiency...CLM-0181The 9.4-cents and 3.8-cents per kWh figures both depend on launch prices that do not exist yet - they are extrapolated 10 and 20 years into...CLM-0296A 2025 peer-reviewed study from Caltech modelled its own space solar power design and calculated three costs of electricity: about 778 US...CLM-0297The low electricity costs in a 2025 Caltech study rest on two assumptions among others. First, it assumes that SpaceX's Starship will in...CLM-1201Caltech's design has no single large structure. Many separate square craft, each 60 metres across, fly side by side in geostationary orbit...CLM-1203Caltech's receiving station on the ground is a circle about 1.6 kilometres across, just large enough to catch the whole central spot of the...
- Also from SRC-077
- CLM-0513The most credible real, flown demonstration of space-based wireless power transmission achieved milliwatts of power over centimetres inside...