SATELLITE POWER SYSTEM TOTAL PROOF-OF-CONCEPT PROGRAM William V. McRae, Jr., Rockwell International 3322 South Memorial Parkway, Huntsville Alabama 35801 INTRODUCTION During the past years of Satellite Power Systems (SPS) studies, major emphasis has been placed on identifying and resolving technical, environmental, societal, and economic issues which could seriously impact the feasibility, viability, and acceptability of an SPS program. Two years ago, sufficient effort had been conducted to show that the vast majority (e.g., 7O%-85%) of these issues could be resolved by ground-based testing. To achieve this end, a relatively low-cost^, four- to six-year Ground Based Exploratory Development (GBED) program was evolved to be conducted during the first half of the 198O's. From the mid-80's until the guidelined year 2000 for IOC of the first SPS, study of the remaining development program objectives centered around ensuring that hardware and manufacturing capability development schedules could be met and integrated within the time remaining before IOC. Upon review of these schedules and estimated funding demands within the context of decision-making requirements, it became obvious that a major conflict would ultimately surface. Basically, the problem encountered was that within the schedule constraints, a total program commitment needed to be made by the year 1990, yet adequate SPS proof-of-concept might not be accomplished until the mid-19901s. In an effort to resolve this conflict, Rockwell International undertook a brief in-house study to develop a program concept responsive to the needs of the decisionmaker. STUDY OBJECTIVES The objectives of the Rockwell study were as follows: • To define requirements for an early SPS orbital demonstration that could provide a system proof-of-concept within the 1980 decade sufficient to allow an SPS program commitment to be made in the year 1990. • To develop a conceptual approach which would satisfy the defined requ i rements. GUIDELINES AND CONSTRAINTS The following guidelines and constraints were observed: • Maximum use will be made of anticipated GBED program results. • Earth launch system will be Space Shuttle Vehicle with current payload cargo bay limits and appropriate mass-to-orbit capabilities. 1 If the development of every new hardware element required for the SPS were charged against the SPS programs, then the GBED phase would cost less than 1% of the overall development program costs.
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