SRC-469

Solar Power Satellite System Definition Study, Phase I Final Briefing, Volume VI: Space Construction and Transportation, D180-25037-6, NASA-CR-160375, December 1978

Commissioned by NASA Johnson Space Center, contract NAS9-15636. 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-0986 The beam-machine speeds in these studies were chosen off a curve, with the operating figure set where going faster stopped helping, and the five metres a minute used elsewhere was a planning assumption that the machine-builders thought could be doubled.
• CLM-0987 They built in high orbit not because it was cheaper - the 1978 numbers said low orbit was - but because a half-built satellite in low orbit gets pulled about by gravity gradients and drag, cools every time it passes into shadow, and cannot be flown up to high orbit in one piece without breaking.

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