Eventually it will be obvious to everyone that digging up and pumping out the remains of ancient solar energy from the ground is silly when you can get to the unlimited pure, live source in just 8 minutes.
The illustration below by Space Studies Institute Senior Associate Mark Martel shows the construction of an SSI-design solar power satellite built of lunar materials in geosynchronous orbit, where there is permanent sunshine. This array converts solar energy into radio energy; and sends that radio energy in a beam to a receiving antenna on the Earth for conversion to ordinary electricity. Those waves would be directed to a receiving antenna in the form of a flat array several miles in extent, held on poles above fields and meadows. This concept solves many of the environmental and limited energy resource problems plaguing our planet.
The original High Frontier platform, envisioned during the peak of the American energy crisis of the 1970s, put Dr. Peter Glaser’s invention of Space Solar Power Satellites as the primary revenue source for LaGrange area communities. In the end, short of a miracle substance, SPS/SBSP will be the way an advancing civilization powers its survival; Eventually it will be obvious to everyone that digging up and pumping out the remains of ancient solar energy from the ground is silly when you can get to the unlimited pure, live source in just 8 minutes.
In Princeton in the 1980’s Dr. Gerard K. O’Neill’s Space Studies Institute became a custodian of United States Government taxpayer paid-for SPS research documents. And unlike just about every other place that says they have neat stuff and that may even thrill the “space hoarders” by offering links to a long list of downloads, SSI still has the original physical documents.
Why was SSI Chosen?
Because the organization that Gerard K. O’Neill founded and devoted so much of himself to, the Space Studies Institute, had been directly involved with Solar Power Satellites / Space Based Solar Power since before it was even conceived. SSI incorporated in 1977, but Gerard K. O’Neill and the SSI originators had already been hard at work with Peter Glaser and William Brown pushing power beaming SPS benefits and tech for years before that.
Over the decades, the Space Studies Institute and some few other organizations have done a lot of hard work to boost SPS from good theory to real hardware – and keeping it all out in the open. Getting on stages around the world, doing interviews under hot lights, talking to governments… calling on people with the means who say for a while that they are looking to help the world… doing anything to get the technical and background ideas of SPS/SBSP/SSP/Solar Power Satellites understood and to get the money it requires dedicated to having it actually, openly, worked on. Always looking for a way to help others have the AH HA! moment based on facts, not blind childhood faith.
And it added up to? When SPS comes around – and it has several times – it’s always:
- “You want to make a death ray?“
- “What about the birds?”
- “What about the Chiiiiiildren!?”
- “Don’t you know that microwaves are deadly?”
- and the biggie: “If it is such a good idea, why hasn’t the government ever looked into it?”
(Answers to those: “No“, “It depends“, “This is for them and for us living now”, “They can also make delicious pot pies”, and to the biggie: “They have, and their conclusions may surprise you.”)
On these SSI.org SPS pages you will find excellent background information on SPS, the history of the various technologies from the people who proved those technologies. You will discover the technical, environmental and societal impacts of SPS and find direct sources of real information that you can use to decide for yourself: Is SPS truly a positive game changer for our planet?
There are more, many more, assets to be added to these SSI.org SPS pages. Please return to see this area grow.
SPS-TV, a curated list of SSI SPS video presentations
SPS-Library, fast reviews of the most important SPS Books (yes, books)
SPS News, the latest stories from around the world that your phone may not have fed you
The SPS Reports Collection, the United States Government’s SPS research studies