Sun Power Satellites_A Global Green Solution to Our Energy Crisis

Astrium is an aerospace subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) and which provides civil and defence space systems and services. In 2008, Astrium had a turnover of %u20AC4.3 billion and 15,000 employees in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and the Netherlands. In 2007, EADS Astrium announced SSP plans . This anouncement included a statement that it would be entering the space tourism sector.

On June 20 2007 the company unveiled a model of the space jet, a one-stage sub-orbital hybrid craft, utilising both jet and rocket engines. Carrying four passengers, the space jet would take off from regular airports using conventional jet engines.

In America, October 22, 2009. FINAL REPORT of the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee was released. This report , known as the "Augustine Report" after Chairman Norman Augustine, the former Chairman of Lockheed Martin Corporation, a aerospace company, and noted "think tank" on science and engineering in USA, released is a major policy guidance study.

Augustine Report was produced by a distinguished panel of scientific and technical "think tanks in USA" as to the future direction of America's space effort beyond the current International Space Station (ISS). ISS is of course the controversial space project to which a major U.S. financial and technical leadership role was committed in the past. This 2009 Augustine Report report is publically available on the internet.

"The Committee concluded that the ultimate goal of human exploration is to chart a path for human expansion into the solar system." "Augustine Report". SSP is subset of the topics discussed by the distinguished Augustine Panel who produced this report on request of U.S. Congress.

" When Mitsubishi Electric started looking at solar power in Japan it, too, was thinking along the lines of launching giant structures and assembling them in space. After a while it balked at the difficulty and cost of that route, and in recent years it has been concentrating on the idea of launching squadrons of small satellites orbiting in formation. Mitsubishi Electric has continued to invest in SSP research, and Japan's space agency, JAXA, is also taking the idea seriously, with talk of a working system in orbit by 2030.

If today's gloomy economic conditions make SSP seem even more outlandish, it is worth remembering that America's commercial-aviation industry was born in the midst of the Depression. The 1930s witnessed the formation of aerospace companies such as Grumman and Hughes, the launch of airlines such as American and United and the birth of the Douglas DC-3-the workhorse of the pre-jet age, which is still going in some corners of the world.

Space solar power is still an idea far ahead of its time. But the necessary technology already exists and is gradually falling in cost. The commercialisation of space-and, in particular, the enthusiasm building around space tourism-could be the trend that brings down launch costs and brings SSP within reach. It will take entrepreneurs as well as engineers to kick-start the public-private process needed to tap the energy of the great fusion reactor in the sky. Lots of people believe it can be done. But as Cutie the robot demonstrated, what you believe matters less than what you actually do."

Adopted from " Space Solar Power, Let The Sun Shine In", The Economist, Technology Quarterly: Q4 2008 (available on the internet)

For better or worse, that is true with any new innovation, certainly any new technological innovation. There's many good things that come out of it, but also some bad things. All you can do is try to maximize the good stuff and minimize the bad stuff.
Steve Case