receiving site. The intensity of the superimposed beams on the receiver is within acceptable limits; core intensity of each of the individual laser beams is far below the exposure limit for the unprotected human eye. Although burdened by the effort of transportation into orbit, power from space turns out to be a serious and safe alternative for the future. If design goals can be met, it promises superiority over terrestrial solar power plants, regarding geo-political vulnerability and safety of supply, economy, ecology and energetic pay-back. In terms of ecology it beats out conventional fossil-fuelled power systems by some orders of magnitude. A survey of the presently favoured orbital variant of the global solar energy concept will be given. All the major aspects of the industrial generation of power in space mentioned above will be addressed, such as: demand and overall system requirements, long-term strategy, harmonizing systems scenarios and the logic behind aspects and impacts of operability and mission analysis. A generic design of a space power plant and a corresponding ground receiver will be outlined, including configuration, design features and design goals, major subsystems, functions, performances, masses, operations and design sensitivities. Finally political, ecological, economical, technological and operational aspects will be treated, and preliminary requirements and conclusions will be drawn.
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