 JAXA and Mitsubishi had two successful tests last week to validate wireless power transmission. This is your space pod for March 19, 2015. The Japanese space agency JAXA is working on a plan to advance wireless power transmission to the point where they could make solar power satellites a reality. Their goal is to have a large satellite in geosynchronous orbit that could deliver one gigawatt of power via microwaves. One gigawatt of power is just about equal to the output of a nuclear reactor. They have incremental steps and tests both on the ground and in space to realize this goal. Last week on Thursday, JAXA successfully completed a test which delivered 1.8 kilowatts of energy with pinpoint accuracy to a receiving antenna 55 meters away. According to JAXA, this is the first time anyone has been able to send such a high power output with this level of directional control. 1.8 kilowatts is just about equal to if you were running a 40 watt light bulb continuously for 45 hours. On the same day, Mitsubishi, in partnership with JAXA, conducted a test that was able to send 10 kilowatts over a distance of 500 meters using larger antennas with an emphasis on power over precision. JAXA hasn't said how much power was actually received from these tests, which tell us how efficient they actually were. And these tests weren't actually meant for efficiency anyways. The point was for how much power they could send and how much of pinpoint accuracy they could have in their beam. And at least as of last year, JAXA expected that from a 1.6 kilowatt test that they would receive about 350 watts from that, from a distance of about 50 meters. Within five years, Mitsubishi hopes to use this technology for short range but high power delivery like charging electric cars. JAXA, on the other hand, wants to be able to test this technology in space by 2018 and they plan to do that with a small satellite in low earth orbit that would deliver several kilowatts of energy. If that works, then by 2021, they would hope to have a satellite in orbit that would be able to deliver 100 kilowatts of power. And that's just about equal to the average output of normal cars. By 2028, they would hope to have a 200 megawatt version, which is just about the same output as the nuclear reactor on a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. And if everything goes well by 2031, they would hope to have their 1 gigawatt satellite in geosynchronous orbit. So I should explain that wireless power transmission works in one of two ways. There's the short range near field or non-radiative techniques which use inductive coupling like Tesla coils, wireless cell phone chargers or even an electric toothbrush. Long range or radiative far field techniques must use electromagnetic radiation like microwaves or lasers. Although lasers are more powerful than microwaves, they would be scattered by water molecules in clouds and wouldn't be very useful as a solar power satellite if they only worked when there was clear skies. But on the ground, lasers have been very successful in being able to power electric drones. Microwaves, on the other hand, don't have that problem and are safer. With a solar power satellite on the order of magnitude that JAXA is talking about, it would deliver a microwave beam with a power density of about one kilowatt per square meter. And that's about the same amount of energy that we get from sunlight. However, the regulatory limit of sustained human exposure to microwaves is only 10 watts per square meter. So the receiving end of such a microwave beam would probably be a restricted area and probably even a no-fly zone as well. If this technology is successful, it could change the way that we use and generate power. We could stop burning coal to generate energy and even shut down nuclear reactors, probably not all of them, but this could change everything. And this sort of power transmission could even change the way that we operate in space. Imagine a bunch of small satellites that are powered by ion engines and they get their power for those ion engines from some sort of wireless power transmission like an idea like this. Not only that, but they could start delivering power to areas of the world where setting up cables to bring power to those areas is near impossible and just is a huge undertaking in and of itself. So this technology could literally change the world. Japan still has a long way to go before they could make this technology a reality. But they are serious about this. This is not just some Jack's a Pet project. The Japanese government is serious and is putting a lot of money into this. And Mitsubishi has a huge interest because their short-term goals could make them a lot of money. But Japan has a vested interest considering that as of right now, most of their nuclear reactors are idle. So they really need this. They really need some sort of alternative energy source. I for one am super excited about this and I would love to hear what you guys think about this technology and the possibilities of it being a reality and how that could change our lives. Thank you for watching this space pod. My name is Michael Clark and this is of course a crowdfunded show. And if you're interested in helping us out, please visit patreon.com slash TMRO to find out more information about how you can become a patron of tomorrow. Also, just a reminder, there's going to be no live show this weekend. But we're going to see you again next week and talk about lots of cool stuff that's happening in space. Also, I'd like to give a shout out to our newest correspondent, Lisa Stojanowski. So everybody, please give her a warm welcome and as much constructive criticism as you have for me. We're very excited about expanding our team here tomorrow and everything that the future is going to bring for all of us.