Pentagon report urges U.S. to develop space solar power

NASA Space Network reported that a Pentagon report urged the U.S. government to build a space platform that can capture sunlight and transmit electricity to Earth.

The report says space-based solar power has extraordinary potential to help the United States stop climate change and provide an inexhaustible source of clean energy by harnessing the sun's energy.

Energy, thereby avoiding future oil wars. The report, titled "Space Solar Power for Strategic Security Opportunities," was approved by the Pentagon's National Security Space Office this spring and is a collaborative effort that relies heavily on online discussions among more than 170 scientists, legal and business people from around the world. The Space Frontier Foundation, an activist group that often opposes government-led space programs, organized the Internet discussion to collect information and opinions for the report.

At a press conference announcing the report, U.S. Marine Corps Colonel Paul Dumpus of the National Security Space Office said the six-month study had yielded some promising findings about the feasibility of space solar power and its potential to enhance U.S. national security.

Specifically, the report calls on the U.S. government to endorse the development of space solar power by funding increasingly larger and more expensive technology demonstrations. These efforts would culminate in a platform in geostationary orbit, larger than the International Space Station, capable of beaming 5-10 megawatts of power to a receiving station on the ground.

In the near future, the U.S. government will fund further research and initial proof-of-concept demonstrations to show that space solar power is a technically and economically viable solution to the world's growing energy needs. In addition to avoiding future energy wars and mitigating the potential for global warming, beaming energy from space could allow the U.S. military to conduct missions in the field, such as in the air.

Operating forward bases in distant enemy combat zones, such as Iraq, would not require vulnerable truck escorts that run on fossil fuels to power the generators needed to supply power. As the report states: "Power greater than 5 megawatts transmitted from space has the potential to be a game-changer on the battlefield. Space solar power and the wireless power transmission it enables could provide combat troops with much-needed energy at their fingertips, significantly reducing reliance on land-based fuel transportation."

While the U.S. military would benefit greatly from space solar power, Dumpus said the Pentagon is unlikely to fund research and demonstration of the technology. He said that role might be more appropriate for NASA or the U.S. Department of Energy, both of which have conducted research on space solar power in the past.

However, Dumpus said the Pentagon would be one of the first to adopt the new technology, and it would provide a potentially large market for companies doing business in space solar power.

The solar tower envisioned by NASA at the end of the last century

Simulation of a space solar energy collection device