more advanced experiments and eventually culminating in operational Powersat systems, perhaps even an SPS programme. It is for this reason that Eurospace has selected the use of the ASAP demonstrator as the preferred reference concept for the initial Powersat experiment and the Astro-SPAS platform for the advanced demonstrator. A large number of alternatives were studied, including use of experiments within the Shuttle-launched Columbus Precursor Missions. However, the pragmatic conclusion reached was that while the Eureca-3 and Spacelab E-l have a number of advantages for an initial experiment, the fact that these missions will coincide with the launch of Freedom may well lead to significant delays. If Freedom is further delayed - or even cancelled - the situation would be more severe because the rationale for a Powersat would be considerably weakened. Space stations like Freedom will be the initial driving forces behind any Powersat programme. With respect to the ASAP demonstrator, although it has the disadvantages of almost certainly dictating a launch into GTO and doesn’t provide any power or other services, these are far outweighed by its low cost, high total payload mass, proven usage, and most fundamentally of all, the large number of launch opportunities every year compared with all other alternatives. However, far more technical analysis than presented in this report will have to be performed before the ASAP reference concept is determined to be the most viable approach to take. An important aspect of the Eurospace analysis is that the requirements for a microwave-based system are very different than those for a laser-based system. For microwaves, the vast majority of the technology exists. However, a critical issue is understanding and characterising the non-linear space plasma interactions with a microwave power beam. This will be necessary to develop algorithms and technologies needed to control a microwave beam as it is
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