vi Baseline Assessment We made assumptions across the full lifecycle of development, assembly, operation, maintenance, and disposal to calculate the cost and GHG emissions of first-of-a-kind SBSP designs. The study’s baseline assessment and sensitivity analyses (Table 1) incorporate three categories of assumptions regarding space capabilities: 1) beyond assumes certain capabilities will be available by 2050, 2) comparable uses today’s capabilities as a starting point; and 3) below covers the possibility that an existing capability does not perform to previously demonstrated levels when used in a novel SBSP system. We do not include novel architectures or recent advances in material science that may alter the specifications of a 2 GW SBSP system. These assumptions do not represent NASA’s position on the future aerospace industry and serve only as an analytical platform. Table 1. Key Input Parameters for Multiple Variable Sensitivity Analysis and Baseline Analysis. Green triangles pointing upward indicate an assumption beyond what has been achieved to date, yellow bars are achievable today, and red triangles pointing downward are below today’s capability (these are assumed given the first-of-a-kind nature of the SBSP systems studied).
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