Multi-Orbiter Continuous Lunar Beaming

In this work, free-space optics-based continuous wireless power transmission between multiple low lunar orbit satellites and a solar panel on the lunar rover located at the lunar south pole are investigated based on the time-varying harvested power and overall system efficiency metrics. The performances are compared between a solar panel with the tracking ability and a fixed solar panel that induces \textit{the cosine effect} due to the time-dependent angle of incidence (AoI). In our work, the Systems Tool Kit (STK) high-precision orbit propagator, which calculates the ephemeris data precisely, is utilized. Interestingly, orbiter deployments in constellations change significantly during a Moon revolution; thus, short-duration simulations cannot be used straightforwardly. In our work, many satellite configurations are assessed to be able to find a Cislunar constellation that establishes a continuous line-of-sight (LoS) between the solar panel and at least a single LLO satellite. It is found that 40-satellite schemes enable the establishment of a continuous WPT system model. Besides, a satellite selection method (SSM) is introduced so that only the best LoS link among multiple simultaneous links from multiple satellites will be active for optimum efficiency. Our benchmark system of a 40-satellite quadruple orbit scheme is compared with 30-satellite and a single satellite schemes based on the average harvested powers and overall system efficiencies 27.3 days so the trade-off options can be assessed from the multiple Cislunar models. The outcomes show that the average system efficiencies of single, 30-satellite, and 40-satellite schemes are 2.84%, 32.33%, and 33.29%, respectively, for the tracking panel and 0.97%, 18.33%, and 20.44%, respectively, for the fixed solar panel case.

Hybrid FSO and RF Lunar Wireless Power Transfer

This study focuses on the feasibility analyses of the hybrid FSO and RF-based WPT system used in the realistic Cislunar environment, which is established by using STK HPOP software in which many external forces are incorporated. In our proposed multi-hop scheme, a solar-powered satellite (SPS) beams the laser power to the low lunar orbit (LLO) satellite in the first hop, then the harvested power is used as a relay power for RF-based WPT to two critical lunar regions, which are lunar south pole (LSP) (0{\deg}E,90{\deg}S) and Malapert Mountain (0{\deg}E,86{\deg}S), owing to the multi-point coverage feature of RF systems. The end-to-end system is analyzed for two cases, i) the perfect alignment, and ii) the misalignment fading due to the random mechanical vibrations in the optical inter-satellite link. It is found that the harvested power is maximized when the distance between the SPS and LLO satellite is minimized and it is calculated as 331.94 kW, however, when the random misalignment fading is considered, the mean of the harvested power reduces to 309.49 kW for the same distance. In the next hop, the power harvested by the solar array on the LLO satellite is consumed entirely as the relay power. Identical parabolic antennas are considered during the RF-based WPT system between the LLO satellite and the LSP, which utilizes a full-tracking module, and between the LLO satellite and the Malapert Mountain region, which uses a half-tracking module that executes the tracking on the receiver dish only. In the perfectly aligned hybrid WPT system, 19.80 W and 573.7 mW of maximum harvested powers are yielded at the LSP and Mountain Malapert, respectively. On the other hand, when the misalignment fading in the end-to-end system is considered, the mean of the maximum harvested powers degrades to 18.41 W and 534.4 mW for the former and latter hybrid WPT links.