SRC-509

Potential of Laser for SPS Power Transmission; HCP/R-4024-07; October 1978

Commissioned by U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Research, Satellite Power System Project Office; Under Contract No. EG-77-C-01-4024. 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-1235 Studies from around 1980 used an infrared safety limit of about one-tenth of strong sunlight for long, whole-body exposure, and ten times that for brief exposure of small areas. Meeting it meant fencing off a zone a few hundred metres across around each receiver and keeping aircraft out of the beam.
• CLM-1238 In 1978 the US energy department asked whether lasers could replace the microwave beam. Its review said the lasers of the day were not good enough, mainly because they wasted too much electricity, but that they might become good enough in time.

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