The Discovery Enterprise: The High Road to the Moon

Greetings Harvey and fellow space enthusiasts,

I hope that you are right about this report opening
space. However, when the papers author states that
the project will cost more than has been invested in
Nuclear Fusion over the last 30 years, I develop some
skepticism.

In my opinion the only way to make Space Solar Power
practical over the next few decades, is to
dramatically lower the cost of sending cargo to orbit.

This would probably be accomplished through
electromagnetic or gas gun launched spacecraft. The
payloads of these spacecraft would contain the part
kits necessary to build SSPSs, either at the ISS then
towed up to LEO, or robotically-tele-operated, at GEO.

With such a launch system (and automated assembly
system) we could add over 5 MWeeg (Megawatts electric
to earth grid) per day. After a year of experience,
the launch system would be upgraded by a factor of 15
times, i.e. allowing construction of 75 MWeeg per day.
This 27 GWeeg per year only scratches the surface of
our anticipated need of around 750 TWeeg by the mid
21st century.

But this is just the beginning.

regards,

Dave H

--- harvey trevillion wrote:

> I have read the full report and am enthusiastic that
> this time we may be on the path to manned presence
> in space that makes sense economically and
> politically.
> http://ssafe.wordpress.com/
> Link will give you the full pdf report.
>
> Harvey
>
> Alex Michael Bonnici wrote:
> Wednesday, October 10th, 2007 may very well be
> remembered as a historical milestone in the creation
> of a spacefaring civilization. On this date The
> Space Solar Alliance for Future Energy (SSAFE), a
> new organization advocating investment in
> space-based solar power technologies to address the
> planets future energy needs, was founded.
>
http://discoveryenterprise.blogspot.com/2007/10/renaissance-of-space-based-solar-power.html