Fig. 2. Lunar Power System options. Orbital reflectors would likely be placed well inside geosynchronous orbit. They would be virtually invisible from Earth to the eye. Each reflector would have a mass of 1 to 10% that of an SPS which would correspond in mass to a 3 to 30 cm wide strip of material of Grand Coulee. Such reflectors could be made of composite materials provided from Earth or possibly lunar derived glasses. There has been considerable technology development by NASA directly applicable to the design and construction of such orbital reflectors (3). NASA, Department of Defense and private companies maintain major developmental programs directly applicable to orbital reflectors (e.g. Conference on Large Space Antennas Systems Technology — 1984; 4-6 December 1984, NASA Langley Research Center). As will be discussed shortly we note that lunar power beams can be convergent. Therefore, the orbital reflectors can be the area of or smaller than the terrestrial rectennas they service. Very lightweight mirrors, actually heavy solar sails, can also be placed in orbit about the moon to illuminate lunar power bases during the 300-hr-long lunar night ((25); pp. 86-89 of OTA 1981). Orbiting mirrors are very simple. They can be made of lunar materials and would be about 10% the mass of a SPS handling a similar flow of power which would correspond in mass to a 30 cm strip out of Grand Coulee. Each lunar station could project many hundreds to possibly thousands of beams. Lunar microwave beams could effectively power very large industrial installations, efficient ion drive spacecraft or communications facilities millions of km from the moon. Traveling, working and living in space could be revolutionized.
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