INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY BACKGROUND This report summarizes the proceedings of a workshop on the potential impact of the conceptual satellite power system on astronomy. The workshop addressed two questions: "What will the SPS look like to an observer?” and, "What will that mean to astronomy?" It was organized by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) (operated by Battelle Memorial Institute) and held at the Battelle Seattle Conference Center on May 23 and 24, 1979. This workshop and report were produced under the electromagnetic compatibility subtask of the environmental assessment portion of the joint DOE/NASA Satellite Power Systems (SPS) project. The SPS concept has been suggested as a possible new energy source which, if fully developed, could provide a source of power equal to all the electrical energy generated in the United States in 1975. The energy would be collected by building and operating satellites equipped with large solar arrays in geostationary orbits around the earth. In the present version, solar energy would be converted to microwaves and transmitted from space to earth. Earth receiving stations would convert the microwave energy to electricity, which could be fed directly into utility networks. Each satellite/ receiving station combination would provide approximately 5 GW of electric power. Other transmission systems, such as lasers, also are being considered, but this workshop considered only rhe microwave version. The workshop considered the SPS design concept described in the "Reference System Report" of October 1978 (DOE/ER-0023). The Reference System’s purpose is to serve as a common basis for further technological development
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