A First Stage of Experimentation on the Route to SPS MARCEL TOUSSAINT* The vision of constructing large Solar Power Satellites (SPS) to beam clean energy for utilisation on Earth has been recognized as a potentially important application of space technology. In pursuing the development of SPS’s, a number of intermediate steps will be necessary. One such step involves the use of a Central Power Station in space for economically supplying power to various user spacecraft. This is the Powersat concept. The Powersat concept has been studied by EURO SPACE (EUROSPACE is the European Space Study Group. It is an association grouping the main European space companies) since 1985 in the course of two contracts iotEDF (Electricite de France) and two contracts funded by ESA (European Space Agency). Various organisations and utilities have been associated with the studies, including, in addition to the two mentioned above, ENEL (Italy), RWE (Germany), CNRS (France). The work also benefited from important contributions by the EUROSPACE members, and in particular DASA in Germany, Arianespace, Saft, THOMSON-CSF and Laserdot (Aerospatiale group) in France, ETCA in Belgium, Oerlikon-Contraves in Switzerland, Alenia and Ansaldo in Italy, British Aerospace and AEA Technology in the U.K., and many others that cannot be mentioned here. Basically, the idea is to reduce the complex power systems installed on-board present operational satellites to the minimum size compatible with safety and draw most of the electrical power needed from a spacecraft specialized in the production of electricity situated at a distance and capable of beaming electrical powerby means of microwave or laser beams. The advantage is that, if a Powersat is used, the operational spacecraft can be simpler, its in-orbit attitude easier to control, and its mechanical complexity reduced. The Powersat, on the other hand, can be a very unsophisticated and robust spacecraft, and produced at a relatively low cost. This would result, if the energy transmission between the central Powersat and its user satellites can be carried out efficiently and at a reasonable cost (and this, on the basis of preliminary studies is possible, at least in some orbital configurations), in improved reliability and savings. + Eurospace, European Space Industry Group, Paris
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