Over the last few months, international efforts have been underway to reactivate interest, conduct analyses, stimulate discussions, and even do some research on space-based solar power. We’ve been capturing the content flowing by and entering it with our interpretation in the Commercial Space Gateway (CSG). To get some sense of the utility of the CSG for quickly assessing activity and progress in the area of Space Solar Power, I clicked on “Applications” on the top nav bar and went to Commercial Space Solar Power and pulled up the titles of 1 web article, 2 presentations, 2 reports, 1 event, 2 videos and a news item. Since I wanted an overview of this content with our short descriptions attached I went to the CSG Search Box and put in “Solar Power” and the same list appeared but with a brief summary of each item.

As I reviewed the summaries I clicked on some of the items to look at the full content. That gave me some real insight into the progress and activities. An article in “Satellite Today” indicates that the satellite industry is tracking this new area and sees themselves as major future players. A (2002) report titled “Can Power from Space Compete” assessed space solar power options compared to the ground electricity market from 2000 to the 2020 which they projected as the first year when space solar power might begin to be functional as a power source to Earth. The major rediscovery I made was content on National Space Society (NSS) “Space Solar Power” library and links to a host of content. Recently, the NSS has assigned some staff to help advocate for Space Solar Power and they are coordinating with some informal commercial space groups like the Silicon Valley Space Club and others to help implement an effective public relations campaign.

John Mankins is co-chairing an upcoming (Sept 2009) symposium titled “Solar Energy from Space” or “From the Sun to the Earth” billed as an international symposium sponsored by SPACE Canada and the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) in Toronto. Mankins has been at the core of promoting space solar power for several years and is a presence at most related events. Movements like this require a dedicated champion helping people to see the potential value in reactivating activity in a area that may not pay off for many years in the future and Mankins is one of the key players.

We encourage users to dig into the CSG in areas that they either know well or don’t know at all to see what they find. Then we need them to provide comments on what the find and what works and what needs work. However, we are encouraged by what we found in the CSG about space solar power. It appears to be a fascinating cross-over topic that can be space or Earth-based with much synergism between these two application zones.

Image: space-based solar power generators such as this SunTower. Credit: NASA