Public acceptance is another cornerstone of a successful space solar power program. It has been noted that the issues of environmental effects and public reaction should be explored much before space solar power is made known to the general public, and that its proponents should get involved in educating people, much as this is seen as difficult and costly by the technical community. Fears of military use, vulnerability and biological effects of solar power satellites by the public can jeopardize the success of the program. For this reason, a large lead-time and a substantial investment in environmental studies and public education is to be expected [Lehman and Canough, 1991]. Additionally, tangible successes of the program each 2-4 years have been suggested to be crucial to a sustained public interest [Leonard, 1991a], In summary, Space Solar Power Program may be understood as a scenario-based program, and its success be linked to general future trends in space development, even if its final goal addresses the fundamental (and Earthly) future energy needs of our planet. Non-technical regulatory and public acceptance issues will dominate its development and greatly influence technical choices. 4.6 Overall Schedule The overall schedule for the Solar Space Power Program is shown in Figure 4.6. The program is scheduled to start in September 1992. In principle the schedule is separated into four major tasklines : • Business and Management Aspects (Start: 1992) • Political and Legal Aspects (Start: 1994) • Environmental and Safety Aspects (Start: 1994) • Technological Aspects (Start: 1992) In Figure 4.7 the bars represent the several subprograms of the Solar Space Power Program. The schedules for these subprograms can be found in the relating chapters of this report. The rounded boxes represent major milestones of the program. The subprograms and milestones are basically arranged in a timeline starting at the left in 1992 until the first Space Power Station is operational in 2039 at the right. The numbers at the upper left of the boxes indicate the starting dates, the numbers at the upper right the finish dates and those at the lower right the duration of the several subprograms. Additional information is contained in Appendix G. The Technology Aspects taskline is separated again into four tasklines: • Spacecraft Development • Transportation Systems Development • Resources, Construction and Manufacturing Development • Power Collection, Conversion, Transmission and Reception Development The most important taskline is the Spacecraft Development taskline. It lists the several demonstration programs that are introduced within this report and their launching dates : • Demo 1 (Space to space demo; Launch 1996) • Demo 2 (Space to Earth demo; Launch 2005) • Demo 3 (1 MW space to Earth; Launch 2012) • Demo 4 (100 MW space to Earth; First launch 2024) • First operational 5 GW Space Power Station (First Launch 2036) The whole overall schedule is basically coordinated around this timeline for the demonstrations. To keep this chart readable not all of the connections between the several tasklines could be illustrated. The schedules for the several subprograms are referring to the demonstration programs timeline and this chart This schedule tries to describe a way to realize a space power satellites within a reasonable amount of time. It is orienting on the terrace concept introduced by P. Glaser as shown in Figure 4.5. The near- term programs of the schedule are described in much more detail in other chapters. A major difficulty in designing an overall schedule for such a huge project is to estimate the duration of the far-term programs . It is unpredictable whether major new technologies that may be applied to this program are developed in the coming decades or whether any ''showstopper” is found while developing this program. This schedule is basically assuming that especially the political and financial problems that such a program is facing can be solved. Also, it is assumed that a reasonable technological progress
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