SRC-573

Satellite Power Systems (SPS) Laser Studies, Volume I: Laser Environmental Impact Study -- NASA CR-3346; Contract NAS8-32475; November 1980

Commissioned by Marshall Space Flight Center, Contract NAS8-32475 (per Foreword, this study performed under Subcontract M9M8BNB-896662D). 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-1234 A second NASA-funded study in 1980 imagined the standard power satellite with its microwave transmitters swapped for about twenty very large infrared lasers. On paper, about one-seventh of the electricity made on the satellite would reach the grid, a bit more on mountain sites. The receivers would again turn the beam into heat.
• 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.

Cite this