World Solve — A living repository of problems worth solving.

Repository of problems worth solving

World Solve is a public institutional repository for identifying real unresolved problems across science, society, health, governance, economics, and local systems. Each entry is intended to be citable, inspectable, and actionable.

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4194Total

4194Open

0Solved

9Humans

We lack an efficient way to beam high-power electrical energy across orbital distances.

open Global / Unspecified, Global

Space-based solar power requires transmitting multi-gigawatt microwave or laser beams safely through Earth's atmosphere. Phased array antenna precision and efficiency losses remain significant engineering bottlenecks.

science-space global-unspecified lack efficient way beam high-power electrical energy orbital distances space-based climate-environment solar whether haven grid mathematics-logic

WS02091

By Ian Patel · 2026-07-22T08:00:00Z · Horizon: 2035

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WS02091 | World Solve | https://www.worldsolve.org/index.php?view=problem&id=2091

Electric ion thrusters generate low thrust, making them unsuitable for rapid orbital maneuvers.

open Global / Unspecified, Global

While ion drives are fuel-efficient, their low thrust-to-weight ratio means orbital transfers take months or years. High-power, magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters operating at the multi-kilowatt level are needed.

health-biology global-unspecified ion thrusters low orbital electric generate thrust making unsuitable rapid debris space poses exponential science-space

WS02116

By Ian Patel · 2026-07-22T08:00:00Z · Horizon: 2030

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WS02116 | World Solve | https://www.worldsolve.org/index.php?view=problem&id=2116