Space-Based Solar Power As an Opportunity for Strategic Security: Phase 0 Architecture Feasibility Study.

摘要

The magnitude of the looming energy and environmental problems is significant enough to warrant consideration of all options, to include revisiting a concept called Space Based Solar Power (SBSP) first invented in the United States almost 40 years ago. Advances technology and new challenges to security have warranted a current exploration of the strategic implications of SBSP. For these reasons, the National Security Space Office sponsored a no cost Phase 0 Architecture Feasibility Study of SBSP during the Spring and Summer of 2007. The report was compiled through an innovative and collaborative approach that relied heavily upon voluntary internet discussions by more than 170 academic, scientific, technical, legal, and business experts around the world. This interim assessment contains significant initial findings and recommendations that should provide pause and consideration for national and international policy makers, business leaders, and citizens alike. It appears that technological challenges are closing rapidly and the business case for creating SBSP is improving with each passing year. Still absent, however, is an appropriate catalyst to stimulate the various interested parties toward actually developing a SBSP capability.