An analytical model for solar energy reflected from space with selected applications

Abstract

Orbiting solar reflectors can be employed to redirect incoming sunlight to provide/reject additional solar energy to/from a planetary body. The concept has been studied in the past for a variety of applications, among which enhancing terrestrial solar power generation, supporting lunar exploration and terraforming Mars are the most prominent. Despite the potential of the concept, previous studies have assumed a perfect reflector, and have only relied on simplified geometric analyses to calculate the quantity of energy delivered with minimal consideration of geometric and physical losses. In this paper, an analytical model is developed for a reflector in a circular orbit to calculate the total energy delivered to a stationary ground-target, such as a solar power farm. A perfectly ideal flat reflector is also assumed to avoid material specific considerations but atmospheric transmission losses, fixed ground-target size and solar panel orientation are included. Case studies demonstrate the significance of high-fidelity modelling, provide new insights into the scalability of the results to test the effectiveness of the concept at different solar system objects, including delivering solar energy at the Earth, Moon and Mars.