AN APPROACH TO SPS DEVELOPMENT Since its inception, the SPS concept has been controversial, because it brought into focus technical, economic, environmental, and societal issues involving perceptions about the role of space technology, and centralized and decentralized energy conversion options. The SPS has also raised questions about the decision-making process in the face of uncertainties associated with projected system performance and costs, environmental effects, and continuing support of private and public investors. Criticism of the SPS focused on the fact that it is a large-scale project. Traditionally, a large-scale project is conceived and executed with a definite start date and agreed- upon performance objectives, budgets, and schedules, and with an identifiable management organization responsible for implementation, i.e., a monolithic project. Success or failure of a monolithic project is judged by whether or not the project objectives are met within budget and on schedule. Further, the time needed to complete such large-scale projects makes them vulnerable to changes in the regulatory environment, and, if they extend over a decade or more, possibly to changing economic and political conditions. Any such project requires a continuing consensus between public and private investors, as well as the support of appropriate interest groups and government agencies during the various stages. The implicit assumption in the CDEP program was that the SPS is a monolithic project requiring a massive commitment of funds over the next several decades. An approach can be devised for the development of the SPS that identifies the underlying generic technologies and their application to specific space projects as shown in Fig. 1. The “terracing” of space projects would reduce the challenges typically associated with large-scale projects including control of the project, the effects of technical uncertainties, maintenance of investor confidence, reduction of environmental impacts, and the difficulties associated with termination of the project if warranted. The increasing capabilities needed for planned space projects — free-flying carriers, manned space stations, and space transportation systems of higher performance and lower cost — will contribute to the industrial infrastructure that could be the foundation for SPS development. As shown in Fig. 1, the SPS is only one potential application of space technology which could evolve from future space projects. However, projects such as the SPS are unlikely to be pursued without stimulation by interests outside the space program. As part of this approach, increasingly advanced designs for an SPS could be studied in conceptual form. They need not be defined in detail until information from space projects at successive “terrace” levels can guide the evolution of the most appropriate design for the SPS. The designs that employ the most effective generic technologies can be developed, assessed, and analyzed, and the results shared with the participants in the SPS R&D program and with public and private investors. This “terracing” approach applied to the SPS, involves several parallel activities: — Continuing an R&D program in support of the SPS by a group charged with this responsibility. — Formulating optional designs as a basis for assessment and as inputs to the selection of the most desirable design. — Selecting relevant space technologies that are being developed for other space projects and evaluating their applicability to the SPS R&D efforts, e.g., solar cell arrays. — Making information on SPS technology requirements available to the project
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