太陽能：“我”從太空而來

石光容

Imagine being able to use energy fromthe sun all the time， even when its night.Thats the idea that scientists at Caltechare exploring. Theyre working on collect?ing sunlight in space and sending its en?ergy to Earth.

On Earth， sunlight can be blocked byclouds. And of course， at night， there is nosunlight. But in space， the sun shines allthe time. As a result， theres far more solarpower in space than there is on Earth. Theproblem is figuring out a way to use it.

Caltechs scientists have created aspecial tool for this project. They call itMAPLE. MAPLE and two other devicesare part of a project that was sent intospace in January， 2023. MAPLEs job is totest the idea of sending energy wirelesslyfrom space to Earth. Were used to usingwires to move electrical energy from oneplace to another. But sending energy with?out wires is a lot trickier.

Using this system， the scientists cansend the power to exactly where they wantit， either in space or on Earth. At least thatwas the idea.“ This is a first！” says Dr AliHajimiri， one of the projects leaders.

To prove that the system could work，MAPLE sent energy to two devices just afoot （30 centimeters） away in space. Thisenergy was then turned into electricity，which made two small lights light up. Next，MAPLE beamed energy all the way downto a lab at Caltech. The scientists wereable to detect the energy， proving that itspossible to send solar energy to Earth fromspace. The experiment also showed thatMAPLE worked well， even in the toughconditions of space， where temperaturescan change greatly.

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Whats the function of MAPLE？