If we had wireless power transmission it would make the need of dense fuel irrelevant- the tyranny of the rocket equation prefers keeping the power source off craft. Even Tsiolkovsky knew this when he proposed microwave thermal rockets back in the day.
To the point on wireless power transmission, we do know waves of doing it effectively in vacuum and at reasonably distances (on the order of hundreds of km) in the form of Masers and Lasers. End to end efficiency is low but can be improved since there little loss in the transmission, most loss is in the beam forming and conversion back to electricity at the target.
I think the main problem at this point is pointing accuracy but if we manage to build optical phased arrays that should come in time.
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If we had wireless power transmission it would make the need of dense fuel irrelevant- the tyranny of the rocket equation prefers keeping the power source off craft. Even Tsiolkovsky knew this when he proposed microwave thermal rockets back in the day.
To the point on wireless power transmission, we do know waves of doing it effectively in vacuum and at reasonably distances (on the order of hundreds of km) in the form of Masers and Lasers. End to end efficiency is low but can be improved since there little loss in the transmission, most loss is in the beam forming and conversion back to electricity at the target. I think the main problem at this point is pointing accuracy but if we manage to build optical phased arrays that should come in time.
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