13. Brief Synopsis of Phase I Work A diverse set of activities were carried out in Phase I to support the objectives of that study phase, ie; the selection of one or more SSP concepts to carry forth into Phase II as well as the development of the analytical tools and database needed to perform the more detailed investigations of the system approaches, technologies, and performance (both technical and economic) of the selected concepts in the second study phase. These activities included: • development of an extensive system architecture trade space to capture the broad range of technical options for all elements of an SSP architecture - systems, concepts, applications, technologies, and operations - for both space and ground segments. • a preliminary market analysis to determine, to first order, the size of the energy market and the characteristics of worldwide demand patterns for electricity and other forms of energy, and to identify candidate target markets for SSP-supplied energy. • an evaluation of Actors that would contribute to the long-term economic success or failure of alternative SSP concepts, particularly “external factors” such as health and safety, environmental impact and/or benefits, and significant public policy issues - public perception of risk, spectrum availability, role of government, financing, ownership, control, and economic viability. • collecting a broad range of SSP system concepts and architectures from the interested community of technologists, engineers, solar power advocates, Wireless Power Transmission (WPT) specialists, government and power industry representatives attending the ACO sponsored SSP Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM) at NASA Headquarters1, as well as information gathered at the WPT Conference in Kobe, Japan and, of course, previous studies of this subject • evaluation of the full set of submitted and collected SSP concepts and architectures using a qualitative but structured decision process based on multiattribute ultility (MAU) methods and criteria which included required investment cost, operating cost, technical risk, actual and/or perceived public risk, flexibility in providing services to terrestrial markets, potential societal benefits, NASA and commercial applications beyond terrestrial power delivery, growth potential, and investment incentives. • development of a Microsoft Excel-based model capable of fully characterizing the major elements of an SSP architecture in terms of performance and cost, and through simultaneous assessment of potential market demand and revenues, determining the economic feasibility of proposed concepts. • selection of the most promising concepts for further assessment in Phase IL The down-selection process, starting from a total of 37 system and architectural concepts for SSP, produced six concepts that clearly outranked the others in terms of the established criteria. These were, in order of preference: Sun Tower, LEO-MEO Relay, GEO Millimeter Wave, Solar Disc, LEO-GEO Relay, and Planetary Power Web. All of these concepts were brought to Phase II and are described in Section 3 of this report, although in subsequent screening of these concepts during the first TIM of Phase H, the GEO Millimeter Wave and Planetary Power Web concepts were eliminated from further 1 Proceedings for Space Solar Power: An Advanced Concepts Study Project, Technical Interchange Meeting, September 19-20, 1995, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.
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