Space-based Solar Power

The winter 2008 issue of ad Astra arrived this week (a bit late for some reason). It has a special report on NEO's (near Earth objects), including an article by Rusty Schweickart, the former Apollo astronaut who has been working for years to raise awareness of the asteroid threat through the B612 Foundation. These articles are not online, but this page is a good overview with many links.

This issue also has a couple of articles on space-based solar power (SSP), and while checking online for possible links to these articles, I found a 19 minute video introduction to SSP that I hadn't seen before, "Powering the Planet." It offers a good introduction to the potential and the technology of SSP systems. This NSS page has a good overview of SSP and many links to other resources, including several links added in January and February 2009. Although their plate is pretty full right now, I hope the Obama administration will consider SSP in its long-term energy plans, as was discussed in late 2008 on Change.gov.