SRC-638

Solar Power From Space - European Strategy In The Light Of Global Sustainable Development: Programme plan (reference ESA SPS Programme plan 2003/2005; GS 03.L36; issue 2, revision 06)

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• CLM-1263 In 2003 ESA planned a two-year set of paper studies to help its member countries decide whether space solar power was worth pursuing. The plan aimed to compare it fairly with solar power on the ground and to pick a few demonstration missions to study, not to fund hardware.
• CLM-1264 The plan had three steps. First, check whether space solar makes sense against ground solar, what the law allows, and whether it could power Mars missions. Second, compare system designs and pick up to three. Third, study two or three small demonstration missions in enough detail for ESA to decide whether to go ahead.
• CLM-1265 ESA planned to finish the whole set of studies in under two years, roughly 2003 to 2005, with the three steps taking about six, six and eight months.
• CLM-1266 ESA set up a small expert advisory group and its in-house futures team to steer the studies. It also linked the work to a wider European research network bid that brought together energy, combustion and space groups.
• CLM-1267 ESA also wanted to know whether beaming solar power from a satellite could power Mars and Moon bases or distant probes, because Europe had no nuclear space power sources of its own and building them would be costly.
• CLM-1268 In 2003 ESA's own rough internal sums suggested space solar and comparable ground solar would cost about the same, to within a factor of ten, and that a space solar plant would return more energy than it took to build. ESA treated both as unproven and planned studies to check them.

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