SOLAR POWER FROM SATELLITES MONDAY, JANUARY 19, 1976 U.S. Senate, Subcommittee on Aerospace Technology and National Needs of the Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, in room 235 of the Russell Senate Office Building, at 9:34 a.m., Wendell H. Ford, chairman, presiding. Present : Senators Ford and Goldwater. Also present: James T. Bruce, counsel to the subcommittee; Amy Bondurant, Senator Ford's staff; and the following staff of the full committee: William A. Shumann, James J. Gehrig, Craig Voorhees, Glen P. Wilson, and .Joseph L. Platt, professional staff members: David Haun, research assistant; Patricia Robinson, clerical assistant; Charles M. Lombard, counsel for the minority; Mary Fay, minority clerical assistant. OPENING STATEMENT OF THE CHAIRMAN Senator Ford. The subcommittee is meeting to consider concepts involving advanced aerospace technology that might help satisfy one of our greatest national needs—future sources of energy. Specif- icallv, we will be looking at ways to collect solar power in space with satellites and to beam that power down to Earth to supplement our other sources of electricity. In addition, we will look at novel ways, to say the least, to construct those satellites. The witnesses today will be Dr. Peter Glaser of Arthur D. Little, Inc.; Richard W. Taylor and Ralph Nansen of the Boeing Aerospace Co.; Prof. Gerard K. O'Neill of Princeton University; and G. Harry Stine, an engineer and author from Phoenix, Ariz. For those of you who have always thought of space as an eternal void, you are in for a revelation today, I think. These witnesses envision a time when space will be the scene of bustling activity. They foresee the construction of gigantic facilities that will provide the world with energy, which is an essential and increasingly costly part of our industrial society. The questions will be: Is all this feasible? What will it cost? When will it come? These are the questions we will consider today. So, if I might say, hold onto your seats, we are going to step into the future. And the first step will be made by Dr. Glaser.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTU5NjU0Mg==