Space Solar Power Fans: The Pentagon Wants Your Ideas!

The Pentagon opened up a web-based system for soliciting ideas on space-based solar power and it wants as many citizens as possible to participate to the quest for potential applications of the technology, according to one of the officials leading the effort.

Although the idea isn't exactly new, it's the first time the National Security Space Office, or NSSO, has conducted a study that relies heavily on Internet collaboration, according to Air Force Col. M.V. "Coyote" Smith, chief of the NSSO's future concepts division and director of the study.

Converting solar energy into power, usable either in space or on Earth, from a location in low orbit would be much more efficient, since the Sun shines constantly and has greater intensity than on Earth and many problems associated with weight and atmospheric corrosion are eliminated.

NSSO has recently been briefed on the concept of space-based solar power and on the need of financial resources and manpower to eventually deploy such a system in roughly 20 years. But they still need your ideas to make it work, as various projects are requested, which will be analyzed and could receive funding for further development.

An ongoing discussion moderated by Smith on a Web site hosted by the Space Frontier Foundation is the main component of the study, since the foundation contributed to gathering input from scientists and engineers who have been involved with more or less theoretical space-based solar power projects, in many cases in their spare time as well.

Such a method of transmitting energy from space to Earth could mean that a military base could deploy in a matter of days, without hauling nuclear reactors or other bulky energy sources discretely and with the ability of being sustained indefinitely from outer space.

Civilian uses are also envisioned, as operations in remote areas and hostile environments could constantly receive energy from outer space, without the need for fuel and generators.