Fellow Advocataes and Members,
The “big word” in space-based solar power these days is “DEMO.”
Enthusiasts and skeptics alike need real numbers to hang their claims on. I know of two demos getting underway. One is a NASA/DoD collaboration to use the International Space Station’s massive arrays in concert with a microwave broadcast system to be taken to orbit in 2010, if all goes according to plans. I do not have all the details just yet, but we are quite delighted because this will be done with our international partners watching–and we are looking forward to collaborating with them on this and similar projects in the future. Hey, that’s why we built the ISS; to do experiments like this.
The other demo is being led by me at the USAF Academy. If you were at New$pace this past July then you heard me describe it. I invite you to check out our initial plan by checking out the Space-Based Solar Power Website-A Public Discussion Sponsored by the Space Frontier Foundation. Please feel free to browse through the entire site and leave lots of comments where you feel inclined to do so!
We can all be proud of the out-in-front position our beloved Space Frontier Foundation holds when it comes to promoting space-based solar power on the basis of smart business case analysis, and not as some flight of activist fancy! Now its time to do some tests and run the numbers. We hope to discover the true potential of space-based solar power, good or bad.
Cheers!
Coyote
We are transforming space from a government- owned bureaucratic program into a dynamic and inclusive frontier open to people. We are determined to convert the image held by many young people that the future will be worse than the present, and we reject the idea that the world's greatest moments are in its past. 
{ 1 comment }
Today during a short presentation of Dr.Sabri Mekaoui about ISU, I heard that the 2009 summer session (taking place at NASA ames) will invite some students to make a final work about how Space could contribute to Energy production on Earth (this is at least how I interpreted the title of the topic).
If you are not involved yet, the results of the study could maybe interest you.
Yours sincerely,
Sebastien