China Proposes Lunar Laser Towers to Beam Wireless Power

Researchers from the Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) have proposed a laser-based wireless power transmission system designed to supply electricity to future lunar missions. This system aims to support exploration vehicles operating in the permanently dark regions of the moon's south pole.

The proposal, which was published in the Journal of Deep Space Exploration (JDSE), focuses on the lunar south pole. In this region, high crater ridges receive near-continuous sunlight, but adjacent impact craters remain in perpetual darkness, where solar power is entirely impractical.

These cold craters are of high scientific interest, because they are believed to contain significant deposits of water ice. This resource is considered essential for future base construction, and it could also be used to produce fuel, water, or oxygen for crewed missions.

Under the proposed plan, solar-powered stations will be installed on sunlit peaks to harvest solar energy. These stations will then transmit high-power laser beams down to lunar rovers exploring the dark crater floors, which will bypass the need for long cables.

Receivers mounted on the rovers will capture the incoming laser light, and they will convert it back into usable electricity. By networking multiple stations together, the researchers hope to create a flexible power grid, although the technology remains in the simulation phase.

To test the viability of the network, the research team used topographical data collected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). They focused their simulations on the Shackleton crater region, which is a key target for several international space agencies.

The simulations revealed that the physical placement of the transmitting stations is critical. By relocating the power towers by just 100 meters, the effective energy coverage area increased by more than 35 percent, while almost completely connecting previously isolated coverage zones.

According to the published study, the optimized deployment increased the effective energy coverage from nearly 18 percent to over 24 percent, and it also improved connectivity across the transmission network from under 40 percent to nearly 100 percent.

At a transmission range of approximately five kilometers, the system could deliver about 371 watts of received optical power. This translates to roughly 98 watts of actual electrical output, which is enough to sustain basic scientific instruments and rover operations in the dark.

The lunar environment presents severe challenges, as temperatures drop to minus 173 degrees Celsius during the two-week lunar night. Traditional radioisotope heaters are expensive and limited in capacity, which makes wireless laser transmission a compelling alternative for maintaining critical systems.

The proposed technology could solve a major obstacle for both the United States and China, as both nations race to establish permanent outposts. The region is currently the central target for NASA's Artemis program, as well as China's upcoming Chang'e exploration missions.

The authors of the paper stated that this research provides strong theoretical support for building lunar bases. They plan to develop the concept further by combining wireless power transmission with laser-based communications, enabling a single beam to deliver both energy and data.

Future research will also address the challenges of powering multiple rovers simultaneously, which, if successful, could establish a foundation for scalable infrastructure. This setup is necessary for sustained human and robotic operations, although many technical hurdles still remain before deployment.