Fax message To: Russ Hannigan 2 pages including this cover page From: Dr. Gay E. Canough (607) 785-6499 (ETM office phone and fax); (800) 673-8265 (voice mail); CANOUGH@B1NGVAXA.CC.BINGHAMTON.EDU; G.CANOUGH (GEnie) **************************************************** March 1, 1992 Dear Mr. Hannigan, I have looked over your preliminary summary on powersats. Your analysis of the various possibilities for uses and demonstrations of powersats is very interesting. 1 heartily agree with your conclusion that small satellites launched on the Ariane ASAP ring can offer a quick and inexpensive way to do some space solar power experiments. In the past 6 months, our company has become quite interested space solar power. We have done some work examining the environmental impact of power beaming and we are also interested in what sorts of space solar power experiments could be done now for low cost. Like you, we have been thinking about small satellites. There have been mountains of paper generated in numerous studies of powersats and we would like to see an ongoing research effort which includes hardware. Power companies are still reluctant to get into space solar power, mainly because they see it as "way in the future". However, they are interested in cleaner means to generate power. Thus, I think the time is right for solar power interests to get together to do some real experiments. This will help us to understand the real technology development needs and it will help the power companies understand just what the potential of space solar power is. I am currently working with Gregg Maryniak of the Space Studies Institute(SSl) putting together the guidelines for a design project on space solar power. This project will be carried out by about 80 students this summer at the International Space University (ISU). One of the products of this project will be an in-depth cost analysis of building various size space solar power stations (focusing mainly on the near term demonstration projects). As an alum, you can appreciate that we are bound to get some new and fascinating international viewpoints on the feasibility of space solar power. I am also involved in developing a small satellite program at ISU and this summer the students will build ground stations io receive telemetry and mail from Uosat and other
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