In this context, it must be noted that while technological developments are of primary importance to the viability and success of space solar power, many of the fundamental problems to be solved have been widely recognized to be of a social, political and economic nature. The "non-technical" requirements appear to be the more stringent. Among the most important design options are those for power conversion (photovoltaic or solar dynamic power) and transmission (microwave or laser beaming). A discussion of these issues is presented in section IV. The technology development plan presented in this section is derived from an examination of the program requirements, technology options and schedule. This plan is a guide to the development of technologies that support the necessary projects and demonstrations leading to a fully operational space solar power program. High priority issues and timing issues have been identified for each discipline involved in the program as a result of the present work. Though the complete study addresses three levels of priority and three timeline levels (short, mid and long term), only the high priority issues and the short term schedule (i.e. next 5 years) are included in the present Executive Summary (see Table 1). From this technology development plan, it can be seen that significant efforts will be required in order to make the program commercially and socially acceptable. In particular, substantial reductions in launching costs will be needed to initiate the full-scale project. The overall development plan as envisioned now consists of five distinct steps or projects intended to demonstrate technologies, address crucial development issues, and progressively evolve towards full commercial implementation of space solar power. Each project must serve to support the next project or step in the terraced plan, and aid in making cost estimates for the following phase. In addition, long-term research and issues must be conducted in parallel in the disciplines of physical and life sciences, among others, in order to support the final goal. Each of the projects within the plan represents a step towards the ultimate goal of large scale power production. A major critical challenge for this phased approach is to envisage significant and independent goals for each of the steps, that are also to be carried in a timely manner. The program's evolution can be portrayed as a series of steps, the last of which is the operational space solar power program system (See Figure 2), and which is not tied to a pre-specified "goal date". The representation of the development plan as a terrace is attributed to Peter Glaser who described terracing as "small projects that have progressive and continuing benefits". Thus the emphasis is on "program" rather than "project". Also, this overall program plan acknowledges the existence of other major independent space programs and plans input from them at two major “decision-to-proceed” points in time, located between the near-term and mid-term programs, and between the mid-term and far-term programs. It is foreseen that the evolution and future of the program will ultimately be linked to general worldwide trends in space development, even if its final goal addresses the fundamental and earthly future energy needs of our planet.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTU5NjU0Mg==