How far we’ve come since December 25th’s Day One. Space-Based Solar Power / Solar Power Satellites from the engineering detail of wiring requirements to societal impacts on the economies of the first, second and the third world.
These topics continue in issues 1 and 2 from 1993 with articles like Makoto Nagatomo’s “An Evolutionary Satellite Power System for International Demonstration in Developing Nations” and “Energy Development and Environment: What about Solar Energy in a Long Term Perspective?” from Benjamin Dessus and Francois Pharabod. Plus, while the term “Kessler Syndrome” is not used, anyone interested in the history of the technologies for tracking of orbital objects should take a look at the article “An Introductory Analysis of Satellite Collision Probabilities” by Kitt Carlton-Wippern.
Then in issues 3 and 4 a power related technology not much discussed yet in this series is brought up: Nukes. “Multi-component Liquid Metal Coolants with Regulated Properties for Space Nuclear Reactors in a Large Orbital Station” by DN Kagan and “The Future of Space Nuclear Power and Propulsion: A Retrospective” by John Pike and Steven Aftergood and “Concept of a Lunar Energy Park” by Masayuki Niino, Katsuto Kisara and Lidong Chen touch on the use reactors to aid off-planet survival.
And there’s a bit of a bonus to double issue 3/4 for people who have read Gerard K. O’Neill’s The High Frontier and can recall more of it than just the pretty cover pictures. Take a look at “Development of Manufacturing Facilities in Space Able to Use Only Extraterrestrial Materials” by Judson Hewitt. It is very interesting.
Wait, all of these pointers… but where are the links? They’re in the list at the bottom of this page dedicated to the SUNSAT Energy Council’s Space Power journals here on SSI.org.
What’s up with the picture at the top of this page? That is the original Mark Martel artwork used on the cover of the Space Power Volume 12 and many other SPS news releases from the 1990s. The inset painting by the way is just that, not a fancy digital layer, the smaller painting of the rectenna was just laid on top of the larger orbital perspective painting and photographs would be taken. When the SSI originals were framed the smaller was just tucked under the glass.
