The third step of the technology development plan is to accomplish a small scale demonstration of a fully operable space-to-Earth solar power satellite. This would serve to demonstrate a fully integrated operational solar power satellite system. Technologies demonstrated would be beam pointing, tracking and accuracy, and computer loads for pointing. Development of large deployable solar arrays, more efficient solar cells, and low power density rectenna will be achieved. The effects of beaming on the atmosphere will be demonstrated. Preliminary cost estimates for an integrated system will be established. The fourth step of the technology development plan is to accomplish a large-scale demonstration of a fully operable space-to-Earth solar power satellite. Technical feasibility will be accomplished at this step. The primary demonstrations will be of engineering scale-up issues and commercial success. Specific concerns include attitude and orbit control of very large structures, maintainability, and reduced ETO transportation costs. Successful commercial and technical demonstration of the fourth step will be used to finance the final full scale project. The final step is to achieve a fully operational 1 GW scale solar power satellite. This would merely be a scaled version of step four that besides being technically feasible, satisfies the other original program requirements (Figure 4.1) of business viability, environmental and safety acceptability and social and political acceptability. Long term efforts in life sciences and social impacts will stretch over the length of the project and continue to progress along with the future enhancements of a solar power satellite. General research should be conducted on the effects of beaming on the atmosphere, the Earth, mankind and other living organisms. Social issues should be introduced in the order of public awareness, public education and public acceptance. 4.5 Non-technical versus Technical Interaction The main goals of this section are to examine how non-technical issues affect overall project development, and to understand how non-technical factors affect otherwise purely technical tradeoffs. While other chapters of the present report treat non technical issues in far more detail, the intent here is to achieve the “big picture” about how they affect development, and how they get in the way of technical issues. The importance of these considerations lies in the fact that while technological developments are of primary importance to the viability and success of space solar power, the fundamental problems to be solved have been widely recognized to be of a socio-political and economic nature. The present study favors the program- instead of the project-approach. There are abundant reasons to do this: space solar power has suffered from the “megaproject syndrome” since its inception (including critical review of the NASA/DOE study), which has helped little in getting wider support from governments . Also, public opinion is in general not too favorable to “gigantic projects”. This has stimulated the presentation of phased programs. For example, space power satellite inventor P. Glaser has recently proposed a “terraced” approach where self-sufficient projects fulfill stages of development towards a final objective of large-scale solar power, which is not fixed to a pre-specified future date[ Glaser, 199 la]. The comparison is found with the U.S. Interstate Highway System (total cost of more than $150 billion to date) and others which may well be unwarranted, as a highway system is by its nature an incremental development and can immediately begin to be fully used to serve local needs as soon as new routes are finished (in fact, it provided tangible benefits after 1 year). The question that naturally arises then is : would the U.S. government and public have supported the program had they had to wait 40 years to use the highways[Leonard,1991a]. The economical viewpoint is that it is at least questionable to make detailed economic plans on life cycles as long as 30+ years when “life cycle cost” is brought up as the consideration of choice for tradeoffs in the face of highly uncertain usage rates, among other major uncertainties. The positive side of these considerations is that they help clarify the major critical challenge for the phased approach: to envisage meaningful independent goals for each of the phases, in such a way that they contribute effectively to the final goal (it has to be recognized that the contribution of each stage may be sub- optimal in terms of time, when compared to the megaproject approach). A closer consideration of the issues to be found below suggests that for large-scale space solar power the program approach is also partly a scenario approach: several major developments of wide implication and scope have to occur to render the program viable, that are not in full control of even the most powerful decisionmaking bodies of today. In this setting, the program can hardly be conceived in any usual fashion regarding management issues. This is the most far-reaching instance in which the non-technical
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