6. SPS DISPOSAL The principal articles considered for disposal in this study include the SPS demonstration satellite and full-scale satellites. These satellites may be disposed of either intact or in varying states of disassembly depending upon the extent to which they are salvaged prior to disposal. The demonstration satellite or sections of it, if any, will require disposal somewhere in the time period 2000 to 2030. Unsalvaged full-scale SPS satellites will require disposal beyond the year 2030. It is important to consider disposal of SPS satellites upon completion of their useful life and salvage for further use due to the fact that the geosynchronous orbit is a limited natural resource and must be conserved for important uses. It is prudent in consideration of SPS life cycle costs to acknowledge costs associated with satellite disposal and consider them as a part of the capital investment in the SPS system. Although SPS differs from many electric energy systems in that there appear to be a number of relatively valuable salvage uses, once it has reached the end of its useful life there is little doubt that at least some of the SPS hardware will require disposal. Placing a value on SPS disposal costs is in essence a matter of placing a lower bound on net salvage value. The data presented in this section should be interpreted accordingly. 6.1 Disposal Alternatives Unlike terrestrial power plants where disposal infers physical disassembly of the plant, structures and equipment and recovery of land for alternative uses, disposal of SPS satellites may infer simple removal of those satellites from geosynchronous orbit to another orbit or location in space where they will not interfere with other space activities. A number of interesting possibilities exist.
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