and a step towards a real world society. In order to prepare a better framework to the future generations we need to begin working now. The process will be slow, step by step, because as far as any meaningful change is concerned it needs to be studied, prepared, tested and gradually applied. At the beginning it will probably cost some sacrifices to all of us: we could be requested to contribute through a percentage of our taxes to the financing, study, and realization of the Program. This is nowadays applied in some of the industrialized countries for the development of alternative sources of energy. The Space Solar Power Program will be able to supply clean energy to people all over the world: if everyone contributes according to how much he can, it will be a small individual sacrifice with a huge global result. It should be clear that the Space Solar Power Program is realized for the public benefit. It will be necessary to have a return for people who invested in its realization. This return will come in the form of profits and jobs in the industries which invest in the Program, and in terms of clean, less-expensive, easily accessible energy for the public. In third and fourth world nations, even a small amount of such energy can make a very big difference. And in the long-term, there will also be the added value of the environmental improvements which will result from the realization of the Space Solar Power Program. It will not wholly solve the energy problems of future generations but it will be very important in helping to produce a high quality life for most of the people on the Earth. But beyond environmental concerns, there are even deeper issues. For instance, at the present moment, a better standard of living is much more important to the majority of the people on Earth than environmental concerns. In developing countries the paramount driver is feeding one's family and improving the conditions of life, even if there must be environmental damage in the process. How can we raise the standard of living? Reducing energy use overall is not an option — the least- developed industrial nations use only one hundredth as much as the most developed but they suffer a living standard one hundred times lower in consequence. Do we want to stop our global progress and to reduce our every day demands? Can we afford to globally reduce energy use without condemning the majority of the world population to a low standard of living? We would like to generate energy cheaply, reliably, without significant environmental impact and without lowering the standard of living on Earth. How can we do that? Let's examine some of the most well-known possible future way of producing energy. Nuclear power: it is not cheap enough for most developing nations, and there will be a huge number of reactors by the middle of the next century with an increase of the probability of fatal accidents, even if the safety systems are improved. Solar power at ground level: for having energy in the amount needed it will be necessary paving most of the world with solar cells and the efficiency of the system strongly depends on the different geographical areas; as far as the actual technical knowledge is concerned, we are not able to say if it will be really cheap. Fusion power: at the present moment we are still far from the realization of the condition for a commercial exploitation of the energy by fusion which we are able to produce in the laboratory. Even if we do, it will be extremely expensive to produce. In any case, the problem of radioactivity is still open. Power from the ocean: this project is actually under study; there are concerns because the process of obtaining power from the temperature difference between surface and deep ocean water could change global climate by altering the heat balance at the ocean's surface. Conventional suggestions — those suggestions linked to the Earth surface— do not offer very good solutions. But the idea of solar power from space allows us to change perspective in facing the problem and probably to find better answers to our several requests. There is a large reservoir of energy in space of different kinds and forms. We can think of collecting part of it for our activities in space and on the Earth. Even in a narrow band and at the distance where a satellite can maintain a fixed orbit, there is solar energy enough to supply more than the demands of energy for the Earth of the 2050. But how can we catch and deliver some or all of this energy? The base concept is simple. It is necessary to locate in geostationary orbit a satellite with large arrays of solar panels. These convert solar energy to electricity which is then converted into microwaves (for example) of appropriate wavelength. The microwave energy is beamed down to an Earth-based receiving station, converted back to electricity and fed to a power distribution grid. In this way we will potentially be able to
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