While putting together a new batch of government study reports on Solar Power Satellites / Space-Based Solar Power, our everso-appreciated library tech said ‘Hey! This isn’t exactly a government report.’

And so it was not. It does not fit in with the DOE/ERDA/DOC/DOD/NSF/NASA reports at all.

This is not only because it was not done by American tax dollars but also because those hundreds of others tend to each focus on a minutia of a singular aspect, not showing the whole without a determined and contemplative step back. As is often said of government studies, they are about the What’s, One What At Time.

This is different. It belongs in a different category. It is not unique, but it has fewer close friends. These are the reads that not only do the What’s and do them well, but also reveal the Why’s and expose the Very-Possibly How’s.

Like 2081 and SPSv2 and the Nansen, this entire book is very readable. We put the four full days of work into it and put it here for you today because we firmly believe that You WILL get at least 3 important things out of it. And not just some specific teeny tiny technical detail. It’s got “legs.”

However, we get that someone who is very busy will, even with such an awesome introduction as this, jump to the habitual promise to “get to that… someday.” If that has become your habit, please do us, do this and do yourself a simple and short favor before you move on. It is an Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics technique that has stood the test of time because it just works on us Humans:

Scan the extended digital table of contents that we made for this document.

It will take you less than a minute and 40 seconds and it will click things into your brain that will stick with you and then you will know to come back to them for the details when they come up elsewhere in your travels.

This is the ISU Final Report on the Space Solar Power Program Summer Studies held in 1992 in Kitakyushu, Japan. A truly amazing wrap-up of the ten weeks of multidisciplinary sessions for 97 young space workers guided by 48 Faculty Members. It is stunning.

SSI Long-timers Gay Canough, Gregg Maryniak, Peter Diamandis, we thank you for doing this. It has stood the test of time. Big time.