Nature-inspired solar lasers to sustainably power space missions

20 Nov 2024

Researchers working to develop new way of harvesting solar energy in space.

An international team of scientists, including from Heriot-Watt University, UK, has announced plans to develop a revolutionary new way of harvesting solar energy in space.

The team is aiming to realise a new technology that directly converts sunlight into laser beams, facilitating the transmission of power over vast distances such as between satellites, from satellites to lunar bases, or even back to Earth.

Their approach is inspired by the way bacteria and other plants and organisms convert light energy into chemical energy - a process known as photosynthesis. Repurposing natural photosynthetic structures from nature will form a key component in the new laser technology.

If successful, their innovative technology could help global space agencies to power future endeavours like lunar bases or missions to Mars, as well as open new pathways for terrestrial wireless power transmission and sustainable energy solutions globally.

Professor Erik Gauger from the Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences, at Heriot-Watt, is leading the theoretical modelling aspects of the project. He commented, “If our new technology can be built and used on space stations, it could help to generate power locally and even offer a route to sending power to satellites or back to Earth using infrared laser beams.”

Joint international project

The APACE project is jointly funded by the European Innovation Council and Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation. It brings together researchers from the UK, Italy, Germany and Poland to create the new type of solar-powered lasers which will provide reliable, efficient power for the growing number of satellites and future space missions. The system will repurpose light harvesting antennas of certain photosynthetic bacteria, which are highly efficient at absorbing ambient solar light.

The research team will begin by extracting and studying the natural light-harvesting machinery from specific types of bacteria that have evolved to survive in extremely low light conditions. In parallel, the team will develop artificial versions of these structures and new laser materials that can work with both natural and artificial light-harvesters. These components will then be combined into a new type of laser material and tested.

Prof. Gauger added, “Living organisms are experts at being self-sufficient and harnessing self-assembly,” said Prof. Gauger. “Our project not only takes biological inspiration but goes one step beyond by piggybacking on functionality that already exists in the photosynthetic machinery of bacteria.

“The APACE project aims to create a new type of laser powered by sunlight. Regular sunlight is usually too weak to power a laser directly, but these special bacteria are incredibly efficient at collecting and channelling sunlight through their intricately designed light harvesting structures, which can effectively amplify the energy flux from sunlight to the reaction centre by several orders of magnitude.

“If our new technology can be built and used on space stations, it could help to generate power locally and even offer a route to sending power to satellites or back to Earth using infrared laser beams,” said Gauger. The research team expects to have its first prototype ready for testing within three years.