POWER CONVERSION PERSPECTIVE L. W. Brantley Nasa/Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama The power conversion system considered for the SPS include the Photovoltaic, the Solar Thermal and, recently, the Solar Laser Systems. The key trade issues being compared among these systems are performance, resource availability, pro- ducibility, lifetime, cost, technology requirements and risks. The papers presented in this session address these issues. The performance growth of space power systems required between now and the time the SPS is deployed is illustrated in Figure 1. About three orders of magnitude growth in power level is required each decade between 1980 and the year 2000. Figure 2 illustrates the improvements required in each parameter of the power system to meet the SPS challenge.
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