Large scale use of SSP will increase the importance of avoiding space debris. How can we minimize the contribution SSP will make to this problem? How should this affect the question of whether SSP be constructed in orbit or deployed? Will space debris have to be cleaned in order for SSP to function? The last group of aspects relates to maintenance and operations. Research, development, manufacturing, operations and maintenance must be considered, in essence the entire life cycle cost. Significant costs could be incurred due to environmental damage and management and should be included. Life cycle costs and cost per year should both be estimated and compared for all energy sources. A quality expected of any public energy company is it's reliability. Unpredictable variations of availability can be very annoying for consumers. Whether it is the sole source of power or only one out of many, reliability will be expected of any SSP system. The question of how we can insure the reliability of a SSP system is then very important. A network of satellites and relays can be designed that will insure good consistancy in an ideal situation, but this will not insure reliability. For instance, atmospheric absorption might unpredictably lower the availability of power. Also, a breakdown of any component of the network will have potentially disastrous consequences and might take a long time to repair. The question of how much redundancy should be built in the system and what other measures might be taken in order to provide the expected power in all conditions and therefore insure that SSP becomes a useful energy source must be addressed. Modularity of the system should be considered for concerns of both operations and maintenance. Modularity may increase development costs but could reduce manufacturing costs and could allow for quicker and easier subsystem replacement when damage is incurred. In addition, modularity may give opportunities for increases in operational capabilities by allowing for continuous improvements. Solar cells of SSP satellites decrease in efficiency with time. Moreover, they can get hit by space debris and create some debris themselves. Other components of a satellite can also break down. It is therefore important to organize a program of maintenance which will insure long term consistancy in the supply of power. The question of how to decide when to repair or to replace a satellite as well as the question of what should be done with a satellite which has reached the end of it's useful life must be addressed (e.g. regeneration of solar cells in space). Integration of SSP with other types of energy production could be advantageous. Can SSP and other energy sources be used in conjunction with each other to improve the output of all sources? How could the SSP be integrated into a large scale energy program? How much flexibility do we want SSP to have in terms of the amount of power it can deliver, both in terms of extra power and increased speed? How will this extra flexibility affect safety considerations? 6 Environmental and Safety Aspects Due to overlapping issues concerning both short and long term effects on the environment, these two aspects are combined. They are organized into the following five areas: Living Organisms, Atmosphere, Rectenna, Alternative Energy Sources and Launch Systems. Living Organisms What biological effects do microwaves produce on living organisms? • Human The main impediments to the implementation of SSP will be based on political and social issues, rather than on technical issues. Since no means of generating power is without risk, many public concerns about power generation have to be taken into account What will be the effect, if any, on the health of the general public? The experiments performed so far have not convinced the public that energy beaming, especially using microwaves, has no effect on health. There are still questions about the effects on many areas of health, including the nervous system, bone and tissues, internal organs, reproduction and circulatory system. Long term effects, such as those on cancer and DNA, must also be investigated. The problem of possible dangerous effects of microwaves on living organisms, in particular on the human body, represents the main reason for public skepticism. The recognized problem arising from over-exposure to microwaves is due to heating (thermal effects). It still is uncertain whether non-thermal effects exist. If this is the case, it would mean that
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