THE SPS CONCEPT The Objectives In the 1960’s, the logical soundness of using the synergism of solar energy conversion technology and space technology led to the concept of the solar power satellite (SPS) (4). The SPS would convert solar energy into electricity and feed it to microwave generators forming part of a planar, phased-array transmitting antenna. The antenna would precisely direct a microwave beam of very low power to one or more receiving antennas at desired locations on Earth. At the receiving antennas, the microwave energy would be safely and efficiently reconverted to electricity and then transmitted to users. An SPS system would comprise a number of satellites in GEO, each beaming power to one or more receiving antennas. At the outset, the following objectives were proposed for the development of the SPS concept: • To be of global benefit; • To conserve scarce resources; • To be economically competitive with alternative power-generation methods; • To be environmentally benign; • To be acceptable to the nations of the world. The SPS concept challenged the view prevalent in the 1960’s that solar energy conversion methods could not make a significant contribution to energy economies, and demonstrated that there are no a priori limits to the development of energy resources in Space. Although not a panacea for the increasingly complex energy supply, environmental and societal problems, the SPS concept could open up a new evolutionary direction for human development of energy resources. Today, we have shed our illusions that we have unlimited capabilities to control and fashion our environment, and we no longer hold a naive belief in the unlimited bounty of nature. Nor can we continue to treat natural resources as a rightful inheritance which we are free to mine, burn, exploit, and waste on our immediate needs with scant regard for their irreplaceability. If we consider the Earth a closed ecological system in which humanity is destined to live from generation to generation, then the limits to growth conjure up famines, shortages, and social upheavals. This view of a future apocalypse would have to be considered a possibility and we would have to do the best we can to manage our affairs wisely, confined forever to planet Earth. But this is not a likely scenario judging by the successful past evolution of mankind. The energy which would be available on Earth from Space is but the first step to help overcome the physical limitations which our civilization would be subjected to if we let dwindling resources on Earth determine our social structure and the institutions which serve our needs. Energy from Space could break open the closed ecological system of planet Earth and assure that resources will be available to sustain the economic and cultural requirements of a global population whose insistent demands for an improvement in living standards may otherwise be very difficult to meet. Although we have not yet used up the resources available on Earth, the dynamic growth which was built on a century-long exploitation of cheap and abundant energy supplies appears to be at an end. Within our grasp, we have not only the energy potential in Space, but the promise of an extraterrestrial industrial capability. There is increasing confidence that with the presently known space technology, we could utilize the resources of the Moon — oxygen, silicon, and aluminum — as raw mate-
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