SRC-206

TN 03 System breakdown, costs and technical feasibility of a SPS. Issue 01, 14.07.2022, 59 pp, Data Classification: Public.

Commissioned by European Space Agency. Who paid for a study is recorded because it bears on how its conclusions should be read, not because it makes them wrong.

Published claims resting on this source

• CLM-0702 Electric trips from a low orbit to a high one took four to seven months on real flights and in most models held here, and NASA's four-month figure is at the fast end of that. One European study expects at least 20 months for its modules, because the time depends on how much thrust each tonne gets.
• CLM-0710 The second European study, which had never been obtained here, is now in the archive. It puts the cost of a two-gigawatt first system at 213 euros per megawatt-hour, leaving out research and decommissioning costs, which is about five times the cost of solar power today and ten times its projected cost in 2050.

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