A financial service company co-founder and billionaire of Robinhood Markets Inc. has announced its new project to build space-based solar power.
Baiju Bhatt also founded Aetherflux and self-funded the company which plans to the constellation of satellites in Earth orbit to collect solar power and transfer it via lasers to customers on Earth.
In addition to launching a satellite, the company is planning to elevate a test satellite to around 550 kilometers (342 miles) by early 2026. If the Aetherflux plan is successful, it will prove how far the solar power is transmitted, Bhatt said. The market has become massive and the commercialization of space has opened new opportunities.
Aetherflux needs to be highly efficient in transmitting solar power from the lower orbit of Earth to collect power in solar panels, and then to the ground and process it to customers. Bhatt said in an interview that each satellite is enough to transmit solar power to enlighten small neighborhoods.
“What we’re doing at Aetherflux is a different approach of space solar power,” Aetherflux founder Baiju Bhatt said in a recent interview. “As we like to say, it is not your grandpa’s space solar power approach.”
He continued, “Our main observation is the reason it hasn’t happened is because that design is not one that you can iterate on. It’s all or nothing.”
According to a Forbes report, Baiju Bhatt’s total net worth is $1.7 billion and he is committed to investing in Aetherflux’s new mission to demonstrate satellites to collect solar power in space.
