China’s space solar power station could also serve as a military weapon, study claims

A Chinese paper by Duan Baoyan outlines a redesigned Zhuri space-based solar power system that uses steerable microwave beams to send energy to Earth.

The report says the same beam-forming capability could support communication, navigation, reconnaissance, interference and remote control functions.

China’s OMEGA modular design and international efforts such as NASA’s SPS-ALPHA and ESA’s SOLARIS aim to develop SBSP, but technical and economic challenges remain.