Value chain · CLM-0962
In plain terms
The 1978 US government reference design assumed two satellites would be finished every year for thirty years. That was a starting assumption for the cost work, not something the study worked out.
The claim as recorded
The 1978 DOE/NASA Reference System was defined on a build rate of two 5 GW satellites per year for 30 years from an initial operational date of 2000 - 10 GW per year to 300 GW by 2030 - and states that rate as a ground rule of the definition, not a result of it.
Evidence behind this: T3-government-report, ground rule. The rate is an input the report states for costing, not a result it derives.
Scope and limits
A PROGRAMME-PLANNING RATE, NOT A DEMONSTRATED OR MEASURED ONE. It fixes the denominator for every per-year figure elsewhere in the report, so any claim citing this report's transport or crew numbers inherits it.
What it assumes
The rate is an input to costing, stated as a guideline. Nothing in the report demonstrates it is achievable.
Where it comes from
Printed p.1, raw: "implementing two 5 GW SPS systems per year for 30 years beginning with an initial operational date of 2000 and with SPS's being added at the rate of two per year (10 GW/year) until 2030" - the text layer renders "guideline" as "guide1 ine" in the same sentence. Printed p.10, under Guidelines and Assumptions, normalised: "Rate of implementation is two 5 GW systems per year; 300 GW total capacity for costing purposes."
Basis: 5 GW per satellite; 10 GW per year; 300 GW over 30 years
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-015 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-0962
CLM-0962, Energy Aperture, as of 1978-10.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-085
- CLM-0013The paper that modern UK studies rely on for the beam figure calls anything below 1 kilowatt per square metre safe, with 230 watts per...CLM-0020The original 1978 design set the beam at 230 watts per square metre in the middle of the receiving site, about one twenty-third of that at...CLM-0023In the 1978 reference design, two limits set the size of the transmitter and the receiving site: how much heat the transmitter can shed...CLM-0039The 1978 report set the figure to protect radio and navigation systems from a disturbed ionosphere, called the number theoretical and...CLM-0045The apparent conflict between 12 and 23 was not an error. The underlying study gave a range, and the figure adopted sits near the top of it.CLM-0101The 1978 contract required the researchers to report fixes if ionospheric disturbance pushed the pilot-beam phase error past 2 to 3...CLM-0137In four major space solar power studies from 1978 to 2007, none put a number on how much of the beam's energy would be lost if the beam...CLM-0138The original 1978 government design for beaming power down from space adds up all the expected energy losses to get 63% overall efficiency...More on the source page.