18 February 2009

Change in the Air? Will we see action on Space Solar Power?



Post the NSSO report, there has been quiet but sustained advocacy on the part of SSAFE (an alliance of pro-space groups), and a deluge of articles (and even a Discovery Channel Special), as can be seen on the NSS Library's two sites that religiously track new articles:
http://www.nss.org/news/releases/pc20071010.html#newsreports and
http://www.nss.org/settlement/ssp/index.htm#links
And that activity & publicity seems to have borne fruit:
- The Naval Research Lab (NRL) recently followed up with its own extensive report:
- The US Chamber's Space Enterprise Council has endorsed further study:
http://www.nss.org/settlement/ssp/library/2008-SECSpaceBasedSolarPowerWhitePaper.pdf
- The Baker Institute / Abbey Lane provided recommendations to the Obama Transition team that specifically recommended investing long-term in Space Solar Power
http://www.bakerinstitute.org/publications/SPACE-pub-ObamaTransitionAbbeyLaneMuratore-012009.pdf
- The Obama transition team also posted a white paper on the subject as one of the first 10 ideas it put out for comment on Change.gov (at least three individuals who were on the space transition team, and one on the energy transition team, are thought to be sympathetic toward the concept)
http://change.gov/page/-/open%20government/yourseatatthetable/20081123_ssp.pdf
- The Department of Commerce's Office of Space Commercialization now has its own website devoted to Space Solar Power:
http://www.space.commerce.gov/power/
So, will a new administration, looking to find its own way in Space, Green Energy, international cooperation find Space-Based Solar Power to be a match made in heaven?

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