A Bent-Pipe Microwave Wireless Power Transfer Spacecraft for Relay to Unserved Regions

This paper seeks to begin a discussion about the efficacy of using a ‘bent pipe’ transmission concept (familiar to those in the communications satellite arena) for power transfer. It presents the ‘bent pipe’ concept and provides a brief qualitative consideration of the benefits of this approach. It also begins the process of quantitatively considering the efficacy of a ‘bent pipe’ mission by exploring the trade space related to frequency, antenna size and altitude.

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