4. Blankets that have mechanical support attachment points built in so that they can be simply deployed in orbit within the basic structure of the array, and 5. Blankets that have mechanical and electrical attachment techniques that allow in-orbit repair or replacement. Earth-to-Orbit Transportation. — a. Ground to Low-Earth Orbit Transportation The space shuttle now under development provides the necessary first steps toward a very high-volume, low-cost, Earth-to-orbit transportation system. This shuttle can be used for SSPS technology verification and flight demonstration activities and for transporting elements of a prototype SSPS into LEO. Operational experience with the prototype SSPS will be essential to permit an orderly evolution to the very-high-volume Earth-to-orbit-to-synchronous transportation system needed for an operational SSPS. The basic differences between the current space shuttle and the high-volume-traffic SSPS transportation system are as follows: Requirement Current EOS SSPS EOS Flights/year 30-50 >500 Transportation cost goal Order of magnitude reduction Low operating costs in cost of transportation to orbit Payload density High Low-medium Payload recovery Yes No Payload to LEO 65K To be determined Upper-stage compatibility Chemical tug Ion tug Figure 88 indicates the rationale for identifying advanced Earth-to-orbit shuttle requirements for transporting the SSPS and supporting systems to an appropriate synchronous orbit altitude. The nominal building block sizes for the solar cell arrays and microwave antenna element payloads would be established from representative SSPS configurations. Nominal component sizes and orbital assembly factors inherent in the large orbital configuration can then be identified. These SSPS payload sizing requirements and orbital assembly considerations could then be combined with an appropriate LEO-to-synchronous orbit transportation mode, including the most desirable propulsion elements, to identify the combined total payload size with which an advanced shuttle must contend so that a desirable low-operating-cost transportation system could be evolved.
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