continuously some 80,000 horsepower from each square yard of its surface—and it has a lot of surface, it is 865,000 miles in diameter, give or take a few miles. (To gain some perspective on the size of the Sun, the entire Earth-Moon system would fit comfortably inside a sphere 865,000 miles in diameter.) Now, obviously, if we could collect only a fraction of this solar energy, both on the surface of the Earth and in space, there is enough there to satisfy our needs for a couple of centuries at least. This is certainly one source of energy that will allow us to modify Coon's energy thesis, to expand it so that we are converting the natural energy of the solar system, not just the Earth, into social institutions. The use of energy from the sun and from space gives us time to work on all the other difficult problems that face us, and it gives us the energy needed to support these very complex and sophisticated social institutions that we must develop to keep away from those new Dark Ages and those nuclear triggers. However, there are two problems involved that I would like to discuss briefly, that lead to the second topic that Senator Ford has asked me to discuss namely, other methods of utilizing the energy in space. Energy is very transitory in nature, if I may use very simplistic phraseology. Once generated, it is very difficult to store until it is needed. And it is not easy to transmit it from where it is generated to where it is used. To use a simple analogy, we must have a “bucket” to store energy in and carry it around from place to place. This is true here on Earth, and it is and will be true in space. The major subject of this hearing on solar power from satellites involves the use of a microwave transmission system as the “bucket” to transmit solar energy from space to the surface of the Earth. This is a feasible technical approach, but I venture to suggest that we investigate some other “buckets” as well. Rudyard Kipling once wrote “There are a thousand different ways/ Of writing tribal lays/And every single one of them is right!” In engineering there are usually several different approaches to the solution of a problem—-and their differences may lie in their capital requirements, their operating costs or that elusive thing the engineers refer to as the “state of the art,” which mainly refers to how far they are willing to stick their necks out. I am qualified to make that statement, because I am an engineer. Additional energy transmission methods may require some additional study. However, permit me to suggest further consideration of Ehricke's “Soletta” and “Lunetta” concepts, because food can be considered as an energy source—and certainly one that we will experience a shortage of in the future. Krafft Ehricke proposes, in brief, the construction of large mirror satellites to reflect sunlight to the night side of the Earth. This would permit several very fertile agricultural areas to have more than one growing season, and it might accelerate the growth of selected cereal grains and fodder, and might also be used for nighttime solar power generation. In addition, satellites in near-Earth orbits can be used to generate a type of energy we already have a very good “bucket” for—-nuclear fuels. Fast breeder nuclear reactors are those types that generate more nuclear fuel than they consume. There has been considerable reluctance
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