Space Solar Power Millimeter Wave Mid-Air Recharging Performance Analysis: Atmospheric, Rain and Cloud Attenuation

The all-electric aircraft (AEA) is a fully battery powered aircraft that does not require jet fuel for its operation. The battery's energy capacity is much lower than that of jet fuel. Thus, AEA will be commercially viable, if mid-air recharging (MAR) is implemented. Authors have studied MAR technology needs in previous researches. This paper studies atmospheric, rain and cloud attenuation impact on wireless power transfer (WPT). This study impacts the design of rectennas at both AEA and space solar power (SSP) satellite that determines the minimum size of AEA. The International Telecommunication Union attenuation models are considered. Simulations are conducted to study the selected attenuation effects on WPT for the millimeter-wave frequency range of 30GHz, with respect to different cruise altitudes and locations. This study confirms that rain and cloud attenuations are negligible when the cruise altitude is over 6km. The atmospheric attenuation is approximately 10 times higher than that of rain and cloud. However, rain attenuations have a significant impact at low altitudes. In general, atmospheric, rain and cloud attenuations are not high but not insignificant.