The fourteenth SSI Conference on Space Manufacturing will be held at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton on April 19 and 20, 2008. The session chairs are responsible for the papers in their sessions. The sessions and chairs are:
Conference Chair: Prof. John S. Lewis
Space Manufacturing, Chair: Prof. Niklas Jarvstrat
Space Resources, Chair: Prof. John S. Lewis
Robotics, Chair: Prof. William “Red” Whittaker
Space Solar Power, Chair: Col. Michael “Coyote” Smith
Space Transportation, Chair: Prof. George Dyson
Closed Environment Life Support Systems, Chair: Dr. Lee Valentine
Economics, Chair: Dr. Klaus Heiss
Special Evening Session: Space Solar Power; the Space Solar Alliance for Future Energy
Poster session: Dr. Roger O’Neill
Recently the National Security Space Office of the Department of Defense, NSSO, under the leadership of General James Armor, began a serious study of Satellite Solar Power. The NSSO began the effort because the armed forces need to supply forward bases with electrical power and satellite solar power appeared likely to be economically competitive with the present cost of electricity at bases in Iraq. The NSSO is very interested in long term energy security for the United States and its allies. It would like to develop satellite solar power to prevent future wars over energy resources. No entity in the federal government has been charged with power satellite development and, excepting the NSSO, none has made any effort to promote it. The NSSO office would like to transfer responsibility for powersat development and construction to the private sector as soon as possible. They see the possibility that critical technologies will be classified secret and so become unusable for civilian purposes.
Continue reading “SSI Update December 2007″