Value chain · CLM-1201
In plain terms
Caltech's design has no single large structure. Many separate square craft, each 60 metres across, fly side by side in geostationary orbit and act together as one antenna 1.6 kilometres wide. Each craft is launched rolled up into a drum about 2 metres wide and 1.5 metres tall, and unrolls in orbit.
The claim as recorded
The Caltech space solar power design (CSSPS) forms its 1,600 m transmitting and collecting array ("PS") from many free-flying modules that are not joined by any structure: "Many free-flying modules, each physically distinct, form a (D = 1,600 m) 'PS' and work together to coherently form power beams pointed toward Earth". Each module is 60 m x 60 m when deployed, launched coiled as a stowed payload "approximately 2 m wide and 1.5 m tall", and has its own spacecraft bus providing timing and phase distribution, guidance, navigation and control, and attitude thrusters.
Scope and limits
A DESIGN PROPOSAL IN A PEER-REVIEWED PAPER BY ITS DEVELOPERS, NOT A BUILT SYSTEM. The paper's own flown demonstrator (SSPD-1 / MAPLE, LEO) is a different and much smaller effort (CLM-0670). The module count (559, CLM-0296) is not restated on these pages. How the modules keep station relative to one another is not specified here beyond attitude thrusters and the correction methods listed on PDF 5 (see CLM-1202). The authors hold patents on the technologies (CLM-0296 limits).
What it assumes
No assumptions are recorded against this claim.
Where it comes from
PDF 4: "The module is assembled on Earth, coiled into a compact shape, launched, and deployed in orbit. Many free-flying modules, each physically distinct, form a (D = 1,600 m) ''PS'' and work together to coherently form power beams pointed toward Earth." PDF 5: "The stowed payload is a cylinder approximately 2 m wide and 1.5 m tall; a module is 60 x 60 m when deployed." Same page: "A spacecraft bus acts as a control center for each module. It provides mechanical support to the module through launch; communications to the ground and other modules; a central node for timing and phase distribution; centralized computing; guidance, navigation, and control; and operation of thrusters that control attitude." Same page: "Our model assumes a GEO orbit." The text layer gives "1; 600 m" and "60360 m"; both were read at zoom 5 from the crops named in src.
Basis: module size in metres deployed; stowed payload size in metres
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-1201
CLM-1201, Energy Aperture, as of 2025-05-13.
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-0670Caltech has two different space-solar-power efforts. One is a paper design that assumes a normal rocket-fuel-based trip to a high 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...