to Europe, especially in launch costs. The opinions of Japanese authorities have not yet been obtained. However, it is clear that their proposed Space Flyer Unit has much in common with the proposed Astro-SPAS mission option. The CIS appear to have a wealth of knowledge and practical experience that would be of enormous value to European efforts. Despite current instabilities, these capabilities should not be ignored. Moreover, cooperation would be relatively inexpensive for Europe and could liberate disproportionately large benefits. 8.2 Recommendations The conclusions of this study are considered very preliminary. Therefore, if the Powersat concept is to be pursued, the most immediate need is for the European space industry to perform detailed “sanity checks” of the Eurospace work. The majority of the funding for this initial study would almost certainly need to come from ESA. Importantly, the prospects that such funding could be forthcoming would represent an “acknowledgement of interest” in the Powersat concept. Such interest will probably be needed to encourage the European space community to make proposals and form the required working groups and teaming agreements for a Powersat Demonstrator Programme. At this early stage of a potential Powersat programme, Eurospace does not consider it prudent to choose between a laser or microwave path immediately. Many technical and economic questions need to be answered, especially in the practically unknown realm of high-energy space laser systems. However, the programme proposed in Figure 8.2-1 is devised so that the minimum up-front expenditure is needed to pursue both simultaneously. At the earliest, a choice should not be made until the completion of the ASAP demonstrator, initial operations with SILEX and after detailed studies of space laser systems. All of these activities can be accommodated within the next 5-7 years. During this period, low-level definition work of the advanced Astro- SPAS demonstrator could also be pursued.
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