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Chao Kong

Legendary inventor Nikola Tesla’s dream of transmitting electricity wirelessly never became a reality on Earth.
But more than a century later, Chinese scientists believe the concept could find its first practical application on the moon.
Their proposal focuses on the moon’s south pole, where crater rims receive near-continuous sunlight while permanently shadowed regions nearby – believed to contain valuable “water ice”, or frozen water trapped on or beneath the lunar surface – remain in perpetual darkness.
Instead of relying on long cables or heavy batteries, future lunar rovers exploring these craters could receive power through laser beams transmitted from solar-powered stations positioned on nearby sunlit peaks, according to researchers from the Harbin Institute of Technology.
The team outlined an optimised deployment strategy for such a lunar laser power transmission network in a peer-reviewed paper published in the Journal of Deep Space Exploration.


The Harbin Institute scientists behind the study are also affiliated with the National Key Laboratory of Laser Spatial Information and the National Key Laboratory of Aerospace Mechanism, research institutes strategically critical to China’s aerospace advancement.
“The study provides theoretical support for the construction of lunar research bases and energy supply systems,” the authors wrote.
“By adjusting deployment positions by roughly 100 metres (about 330 feet), the laser power network increased its effective coverage by more than 35 per cent, while the powered areas became nearly fully connected.”
Their proposal comes as China and the United States step up efforts to establish a long-term presence on the moon.
Nasa’s Artemis programme and China’s Chang’e missions both target the lunar south pole, where the extended sunlight on elevated ridges and water ice in the permanently shadowed craters create a prime location for scientific research and resource utilisation.
However, those conditions also present an engineering challenge. Rovers operating inside shadowed craters cannot rely on solar panels, while batteries alone may not provide sufficient endurance for extended missions.
The proposed system places solar arrays on illuminated ridges to generate high-power laser beams, which send energy to receivers mounted on lunar rovers that convert the light back into electricity.

Multiple stations would operate as an interconnected network, allowing rovers to travel between coverage zones without carrying large on-board power reserves, the Harbin team’s model said.
Rather than selecting sites based solely on sunlight exposure, the researchers used a statistical model to determine where laser stations should be deployed to maximise both energy coverage and network connectivity.
“The optimisation successfully established a continuous and stable laser power supply network,” they wrote.
For this, the team used topographic data from Nasa’s Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter around Shackleton crater – an impact crater at the moon’s south pole that is regarded as one of the most strategically important sites for future lunar exploration.




This method indicated an increase in effective coverage from nearly 18 per cent to more than 24 per cent, while regional connectivity rose from just under 40 per cent to almost 100 per cent, effectively linking previously isolated power zones into a continuous network.
Simulations showed that at a transmission distance of about 5km (3 miles), the system could still deliver around 371 watts of received optical power and 98 watts of electrical output. This would be enough, the researchers said, to support rover operations inside permanently shadowed regions.
“Future studies will explore integrated laser communication and power transmission, using the laser beam as both an energy source and a high-bandwidth communication channel to solve data return challenges inside permanently shadowed regions,” the team wrote in the study published on April 28.
“We also plan to consider dynamic illumination changes and coordinated power supply for multiple lunar rovers.”


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Chinese scientists show how wireless electricity may become reality on the moon, with laser network to beam solar energy into dark craters


Chinese scientists show how wireless electricity may become reality on the moon, with laser network to beam solar energy into dark craters.


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Could China’s lunar laser tower bring Nikola Tesla’s free energy dream to life?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Chinese scientists show how wireless electricity may become reality on the moon, with laser network to beam solar energy into dark craters

Chinese scientists show how wireless electricity may become reality on the moon, with laser network to beam solar energy into dark craters