Dr. Jordin Kare will be on The Space Show with Dr. David Livingston this Sunday. Topics will include LaserMotive’s recent work on laser thermal rocket launches including being part of NASA’s Ride the Light project. This recent work showed some very impressive performance of laser thermal rockets (aka laser launch). Tune in to hear more about that and LaserMotive’s general work on wireless power transfer via laser!

The efficiency of wireless power delivery via laser does vary with distance, though the impact is much more pronounced near the ground than when delivering power toward the sky or space.

While not directly related to distance, the primary factor affecting efficiency is whether the receiver collects all of the transmitted light, or if some of the light “leaks” past the receiver. This is determined by the design of the transmitting optics and the size of the receiver. There may be reasons other than efficiency that also drive the size of the transmitter and receiver.

Assuming that the receiver is large enough to capture any light that makes it that far, the remaining factor is absorption and scattering by the atmosphere. Power transferred from point to point near the ground can suffer significant energy losses due to turbulence and dust. We can reduce that effect by elevating the transmitter and receiver so that the beam remains a reasonable distance, perhaps 100 feet, above ground level.

Power beamed near vertical suffers comparatively little energy loss because it quickly gets away from the ground effects. Scattering will depend on atmospheric conditions (e.g., dust, clouds). Absorption in the wavelengths we use is small. We can design for any range from millimeters to many kilometers, and we are working on system designs to beam power from the Earth’s surface to satellites and the lunar surface — it is possible to transmit power at reasonable efficiency over hundreds, or even thousands, of kilometers under the right conditions.

Geekwire has announced that LaserMotive is one of the five finalists in the 2012 Seattle 2.0 Awards Innovation of the Year category! We face some cool competitors, but nothing that will truly revolutionize such an important function in our world like the delivery and use of power.

The winner will be chosen by popular vote. Show your support for LaserMotive by voting no later than April 23. In fact, why not vote right now, here.

The awards show and announcement of the winners takes place May 3 at the Experience Music Project.

Wish us luck, and, better yet, tell all your friends and colleagues to vote for LaserMotive!

As we mentioned earlier this year, LaserMotive is listening to you, our friends, followers, and the general public and is answering some of the most frequently asked questions about laser power beaming, or, as we also call it, wireless power via lasers. We’re proud to post our answer to our first question: How does wireless power via lasers work?

We sometimes describe our wireless power solution as an “invisible extension cord” because, just like a real extension cord, it supplies power at a distance from your electrical outlet.

In our case, the process works much like solar power, where the sun shines on a photovoltaic receiver (solar cell) that converts the sunlight to electricity. We take electricity from a source such as a wall plug or generator and convert it into light (via laser). That light is transmitted over a long distance to a photovoltaic receiver that converts the light back into electricity, where it can be used to run a motor, charge a battery, or anything else you’d want to run on electricity!

The significant differences between our wireless power solution and solar power are that laser light is much more intense than sunlight, you can deliver the power anywhere that is in line of sight, and power can be delivered 24 hours per day.

More congratulations are in order for Avery Rich, the ninth-grade student at Cedarcrest High School in Duvall, WA, about whom we wrote recently. She has continued to have great success with her science fair project comparing wireless power deliver between a laser beam and a broader spectrum white light beam.

After winning the regional fair, Avery entered her project, “Beaming Power: Can Lasers Be Used To Transfer Energy Efficiently?” , in the Washington State Science and Engineering Fair.  Avery switched categories to Energy and Transportation and won a blue ribbon. She was also awarded a Wolfram Mathematica special award and chosen for a $20,000, four-year renewable scholarship to Ohio Wesleyan University.

Avery is going to visit our shop soon to see the work we are doing on developing the type of wireless power delivery she studied for her project.

Congratulations Avery, and we’ll look forward to seeing your success in future science fairs!

LaserMotive congratulates Avery Rich, a ninth-grader at Cedarcrest High School in Duvall, WA, for her prize winning Science Fair project, entitled “Beaming Power: Can Lasers Be Used To Transfer Energy Efficiently?”

Avery approached us in October about mentoring her in her research project, and we are delighted to see the thought, research acumen, and experimental skills she devoted to her study. You can see Avery’s project this Saturday from 1:00-3:00 when she competes in the Central Sound Regional Science & Engineering Fair at the Bellevue College Gymnasium, on March 10, 2012. http://depts.bellevuecollege.edu/sciencefair/

We recently had a chance to talk to Avery about her project.

Q: How did you get interested in power beaming as a science fair project?

A: My dad is an electrical engineer, and he has inspired my interest in building things. I am the only girl in my school interested in engineering, and my goal is to be an aerospace engineer. My specific area of interest is alternative propulsion technologies.

For my project, I initially wanted to study/measure the speed of light, but I realized it was too fast for the resources I had available. As I researched light, I learned about the wave/particle duality, and that piqued my interested in light. Then I read about solar power and thought about the conversion of light to energy. I follow NASA, and I read about the space elevator games, heard of LaserMotive, and I started reading about laser power beaming.

Q: What was your research question?

A: Are lasers more efficient at transferring energy over distance than other light sources?

Q: What was your hypothesis?

A: If the distance between a light source and a photovoltaic cell affects power efficiency, then a laser will have a more consistent efficiency over distance than a non-collimated light source, such as a flashlight, because a laser is more collimated.

Q: What was your research methodology?

A: I attached a flashlight to a metal track, aimed it at a solar panel, and measured the input and output voltage and current at various distances. I then did the same with a 330 mW 808 nm laser. I graphed the average efficiency over distance of both onto the same logarithmic scale graph and compared the two data trends.

Q: What was the result?

A: The flashlight graph showed a clear exponential pattern, while the laser graph exhibited a much more linear pattern.  The shape of the flashlight graph tells us that as the PV cell moves away from the flashlight, efficiency drops drastically and is reduced to little or no measurable power at all.  This confirms the expected cons of a non-collimated light source.  The linear pattern of the laser graph shows us that efficiency is more consistent over distance.  As distance increases, there is little to no change in efficiency when using the laser.  This explains how lasers can be beneficial in powering an object over great distances, because distance itself is not a primary factor in efficiency.

Q: What was your conclusion?

A: It was predicted that if the distance between a light source and a photovoltaic cell affects power efficiency, then a laser will have a more consistent efficiency over distance than a non-collimated light source, such as a flashlight, because a laser is more collimated.  This hypothesis was proven correct by the conducted experiment.  Thus, lasers can transfer energy much more consistently over distance than a non-collimated light source.

Q: What is next?

A: I will be presenting my project at the Central Sound Regional Science & Engineering Fair at the Bellevue College Gymnasium on March 10, 2012. http://depts.bellevuecollege.edu/sciencefair/. After that, I will continue pursuing my goal of being an aerospace engineer (and softball)!

The title pretty much says it all. As part of our fifth anniversary, we’ll be having our first tweet-up Friday, March 2nd, starting at 10am PST / 1pm EST. Send any questions or hellos to @lasermotive on Twitter. We’ll do our best to answer!

As we enter a new year, we at LaserMotive would like to take a few moments to review some of the highlights of the past year as well as look at where we are heading in the upcoming year.

Our most important milestone as a company in the past year was joining NASA’s “Ride the Light” project. “Ride the Light” marks our first major commercial contract to develop laser power beaming as a power source for vehicles – and with NASA no less! This project will impact our future for some time to come, too.

In addition to the “Ride the Light” project, other highlights of 2011 include:

• Another hugely successful exhibit of our technology at SPIE, including a whole exhibit space devoted to our historic free-flying quadrocopter flight at the Future of Flight Aviation Center.
• Presentation at “NASA Day on the Hill,” where we were the only private company invited by NASA to have a display booth.
• One of the key presenters at the Space Power Workshop being held in Los Angeles. LaserMotive’s Tom Nugent spoke on “Transitioning Power Beaming from Terrestrial to Satellite Applications” before this crowd of satellite power experts, which featured speakers from the leading space technology organizations in the public and private sectors.
• Major media coverage ranging from Fox News to Photonics Online.

In 2012, we will continue to pursue additional contracts – details of which we can’t discuss at present but will be sure to share when the time comes. In addition, we’re looking at the possibility of more and expanded demonstrations of our laser power beaming wireless recharging systems. We’ll let you know as we get closer and details are finalized.

Here’s to a successful and prosperous 2012!

With the holiday season well underway, we want to take the time to wish all our friends, family, followers and customers a very happy holiday. Whether you celebrate the festival of lights, decorate an evergreen tree or something in between, we wish you and yours the very best this season. Your support has helped us in our efforts to bring our slogan into reality: “Power on a Beam of Light.” We’ll have more to report in the New Year!

In recent weeks, LaserMotive has announced several important milestones that we see as significant, both in the long term development of LaserMotive as well as in the development of laser power beaming as a technology. In particular, two are of special importance. The first, an investment from the Space Angels Network, an angel investment group specializing in space technology, provides validation from the financial community of the business rationale for laser power beaming as a commercial enterprise. Coming shortly after that was our selection as one of the companies to work on the NASA “Ride The Light” space technology project designed to develop technology to enable future missions. Both of these offer tangible proof that laser power beaming is moving from the realm of esoteric science to practical reality. There still is much to be done to bring the full impact of laser power beaming into the mainstream. However, with these two developments we’ve achieved key milestones that demonstrate that laser power beaming is more than just for academics — it is now on its way to becoming commercial reality.