Microstrip aperture-coupled antenna design for in-space power reception experiment using nano-sized satellite

The concept of space solar power (SSP) satellites has been around since 1968 and is the vision of placing huge satellites (on the order of 1 square kilometer) into geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) to harvest gigawatts of the suns radiant energy and transmit it to Earth where it is collected and converted to usable direct current (dc) power by a rectifying antenna (rectenna) array (larger than the transmitting satellite) and injected into the electrical grid. Yet over 40 years later there is still no operational SSP due to the economics and associated risks, public awareness, political agendas and from lack of demonstrations to these audiences.