0191-9067/80/030169-05$02.00/0 Copyright ° 1980 SUNSAT Energy Council SOME THOUGHTS ON SUNSATt T. O. PAINE President, Northrop Corporation Los Angeles, California You can understand why it is a particular pleasure for me to be with you today. After all, any proposal that combines the large-scale generation of electric power with bold new steps in space capabilities is obviously of extraordinary interest to someone like me with a background both at General Electric and NASA. I just wish I could spend the entire day participating in your discussions of photovoltaics, microwave transmissions, lasers, large antennas, and system tradeoffs and economics. Since I can’t do that, let me pass on some general thoughts to you on this stimulating subject. Looking backward for a minute, I recall the concept of an SPS published by Peter Glaser in Science magazine in 1968. I also remember in 1968 Eberhardt Rees giving me and Wemher von Braun a brief tutorial on the sun. This took place at a top level meeting at NASA to explore the agency’s future directions. There was much discussion of planetary exploration, of high energy astronomical observatories, of the “wet workshop” versus the “dry workshop” (which later became “Skylab”), of the Space Shuttle, of space stations, and of how many trips we should make to the moon — would we need Apollo 18, 19, and 20? When it was his turn to speak, Eberhardt thoughtfully but forcefully admonished us for not giving much higher priority to the sun — “the source of all of our energy,” as I recall his words. We were all impressed by Eberhardt Rees’s vision of the long range significance of the sun. At that same time, in 1968, it was popularly believed that the exploration of space was worthy of a major national commitment. Space exploration was seen as an alternative to war as a focus of national dedication, mobilization and unity. This “new frontier” would stimulate peaceful technological advances to the betterment of world society. More recently, President Carter described our national energy programs as “the moral equivalent of war.” So here we are considering new space systems to help solve the world’s energy problems. Which just goes to show that it’s hard to come up with a really new idea. Or, as the Romans said so appropriately, “There’s nothing new under the sun” (see also Ecclesiastes 1.9). Today serious consideration is being given Solar Power Satellites by professional societies, universities, industry, and the Federal Government. We’re all aware of the many possible ways to use solar energy — the power tower, residential house-top systems, terrestrial photovoltaic arrays and, in space, photovoltaic collectors, thermal engines, microwave and laser transmission, mirrors, low earth and geostationary orbits, etc. From these many possibilities, the Federal Government has selected the tLuncheon address given at the conference, “Solar Power Satellites — What, How, and When,” Los Angeles, February 28, 1980.
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