From RF Beaming to Boardrooms: My Week at Space Solar

Most work experience placements mean a week of photocopying and coffee runs. Ours looks a little different – rather than keeping them in one department, we let them loose across the company. In honour of National Intern Day, here’s our most recent intern, Veer Kumar’s account of the week, in his own words.

This week I had the privilege of being invited to do a 4-day work experience with Space Solar, where I was given the opportunity to work in almost every department in the company, from the technology & design team to being involved with PR management.

Day 1: finance and a look behind the curtain

My week began by meeting the CFO, Richard Winslade, who I travelled with to the Space Solar offices. But before I’d even done any work, I was shown how the RF beaming system channels energy down to Earth, then introduced to an autonomous robot that the team has been building. It really set the tone for the week!

The rest of the day was spent getting to grips with how Space Solar manages their finances, handling investments and the financial model of the business. I finished by drafting a document weighing up assumptions in upside, downside, and central cases to understand their effect on how investments should be handled.

Day 2-3: awe-inspiring tech and design

The next two days were spent with the tech and design team, where I began to properly appreciate the complexity and ingenuity behind what Space Solar is building. 

I met the CTO, Dave, and Development Engineer, Lanré, who tasked me with a coding project: get a pair of servos to perform a task and report back data. For example, the load they were under or their degrees of rotation. The project took me the best part of a day and a half, with their support. When I finally finished, Dave and Lanré informed me that what I’d built was a lower cost example of an integral element of what they are actually building.

I spent my final half day on a CAD project, building a part for a system they would use to test components on their robot. I had some success but Lanré came over and cleaned up my blocky mess in a matter of minutes – another awe-inspiring moment for me!

Day 4: shadowing the CEO

On my final day, I shadowed the CEO, Sam Adlen. Drawing on what I’d learned on Day 1 about Space Solar and its place in the world of energy, I put together a short two-page document on the strengths of Space-Based Solar Power versus other forms of green energy, followed by another short report on how space-based solar power solutions are being implemented around the world.

I then sat in on a few of Sam’s meetings – watching how investments are secured in a meeting with an investor, before joining a PR call that left me genuinely mystified by the sheer range of tasks Space Solar juggles – in what wasn’t even a full working week.

My final review

I came away with far more than I ever expected from four days. Beyond the experience in coding and CAD, I gained a real appreciation for everything that goes into building a company at the very cutting edge of their industry: from the finance decisions and PR supporting every investment, to the engineering that turns these ingenious ideas into a real working system. 

Interested in work experience with Space Solar? We’d love to hear from you.