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Space-Based Solar Power report Space-Based Solar Power As an Opportunity for Strategic Security. Report to the National Security Space Office, October 2007, 75 pages.

Sun Power Sun Power: The Global Solution for the Coming Energy Crisis, by Ralph Nansen. "Sun Power will help to show that energy from space is a realistic proposal and that it has great commercial potential" (Chris Kraft, former director, Johnson Space Center). "Nansen presents the rationale for solar power satellites in an understandable form devoid of the usual technical jargon to make the subject accessible to the public" (Dr. Peter E. Glaser, inventor of the solar power satellite concept). "The time is again right to bring this very important energy option to the attention of the American public" (Joseph P. Allen, former Space Shuttle astronaut).

Space Power Space Power, by G. Harry Stine. Online copy of a 1981 book that provides a comprehensive look at the implicatons of space solar power, written by a participant in the Department of Energy Satellite Power System Concept Development and Evaluation Program.

Ad Astra Special Report Ad Astra Special Report on Space-Based Solar Power, Spring 2008

SSP Video Library Space Solar Power Video Library:

DOE SPS Reports Satellite Power System Concept Development and Evaluation Program. An extensive collection of reports from this study conducted by the Department of Energy (DOE) and NASA from 1977 to 1981. This study remains the largest to date. See press briefing about this study for a quick summary.

Lunar Resource Utilization Lunar Resources Utilization for Space Construction. Study conducted for NASA by General Dynamics Convair Division in 1979 concluded that lunar resources could supply 90% of the material for power satellite production and become cost effective if more than 30 satellites are produced. A nice summary of this study appears in Toward Distant Suns, Chapter 8.

OTA SSP Report Solar Power Satellites. Office of Technology Assessment, August 1981. 297 pages. Evaluation of the DOE/NASA studies. [PDF 5.5 MB]

NRC SSP Report Electric Power from Orbit: A Critique of a Satellite Power System. National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences, 1981, 356 pages. Evaluation of the DOE/NASA studies. See article Press Misinterprets NRC Report on SPS and discussion of this report in Sun Power, Chapter 8.

ISU SSP Report Space Solar Power Program. International Space University, Kitakyushu, Japan, 1992, 530 pages. An overall development plan to demonstrate technologies and progressively evolve toward full commercial implementation of space solar power.

NRC SSP Report Laying the Foundation for Space Solar Power: An Assessment of NASA's Space Solar Power Investment Strategy. National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences, 2001, 95 pages. An evaluation of NASA's Space Solar Power (SSP) Exploratory Research and Technology (SERT) program conducted in 1999-2000. [PDF 5.7 MB] [HTML] [buy hard copy].

Silent Power Silent Power - Available chapters from a forthcoming book by the Space Solar Power Workshop at the Georgia Institute of Technology. 204 pages currently available.

ESA SSP papers

URSI White Paper on SSP International Union of Radio Science (URSI) White Paper on Solar Power Satellite (SPS) Systems (2007) [HTML], with Supporting Document, 63 pages [PDF 1.5 MB] and Appendices, 67 pages [PDF 1.9 MB]. If these off-site links fail, try this one.

Additional Papers

  • 1985: Solar Power Satellite Built of Lunar Materials. Space Research Associates study for the Space Studies Institute. Provided courtesy of Space Studies Institute. 100 pages. [PDF 1.5 MB]

  • 1997:  A Fresh Look at Space Solar Power: New Architectures, Concepts, and Technologies. John C. Mankins. International Astronautical Federation IAF-97-R.2.03. 12 pages. [PDF 629K] [HTML]

  • 2000:  Final Report NSF-NASA Workshop on Autonomous Construction and Manufacturing for Space Electrical Power Systems. 51 pages. [PDF 268K]

  • 2004:  Reinventing the Solar Power Satellite. Geoffrey A. Landis. NASA/TM-2004-212743. 35 pages. [PDF 399K]

  • ... MORE

 


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