SRC-054

Laying the Foundation for Space Solar Power: An Assessment of NASA's Space Solar Power Investment Strategy

Published claims resting on this source

• CLM-0922 In 2001 a National Research Council committee found that the basic trade study for the solar array had never been done, and that the mass and cost of getting the array to orbit dominates whatever the array itself costs. Their summary is that making the array free would not fix it.
• CLM-0923 The 2001 committee says a solar power satellite several square kilometres across would need tens to hundreds of kilometres of cable in total, and that cable mass is one of the costs of using less efficient cells.
• CLM-0924 In four parts of NASA's programme the 2001 committee found an analysis missing or a goal without a stated basis: for solar arrays, for how much of the assembly work robots should do, for structures, and for thermal control. Reading these as one pattern, targets set before the study that would tell you what to aim for, is an inference; the committee makes each finding separately.
• CLM-0925 In 2001 the whole of American space solar-cell research - NASA, the Air Force and industry together - ran at about eight million dollars a year, against seventy-five million for ordinary ground solar cells at the Department of Energy. The same committee noted that space hardware is built in tiny quantities and tested heavily, while a power satellite would need millions of each part, and that the manufacturing investment NASA does not usually make might be where the biggest saving is.

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