Citizens for Space Based Solar Power

Author: Rob Mahan

  • Letter to Senator McCain

    This evening I submitted the following letter to Senator McCain through the Contact Us page on his campaign website. I will be writing Senator Obama a similar letter in the next few days. This is not the first and will not be the last time I have contacted both campaigns on the topic of space-based solar power.

    I would encourage each of you to contact our presidential candidates and everyone else that you can think of and present them with space-based solar power. As in sales, you may hear “no” many times but it only takes one “yes” to close the deal. If you are the one to get that “yes”, what a legacy you will leave behind for future generations!

    Senator McCain,

    It gives me great concern that Energy is not listed as a separate topic under Issues on your campaign website. Americans would not have a constantly growing economy, national security or even an adequate food supply without a huge and ceaseless supply of energy from fossil fuels. We have relied heavily on both domestic and foreign oil to grow and run our economy, power our military and our tractors for far too long. I am very concerned that the current crude oil and gasoline prices are only a harbinger of what is to come. If worldwide oil production has not already peaked, it will peak and begin a rapid decline sometime in the next few decades. Our way of life and security will suffer greatly and for a very long time without a ready and sustainable replacement.

    I believe this is an outside context problem that most Americans don’t even have a way to discuss, let alone solve without leadership. Please give some straight thinking and then some straight talk to how critical our current energy situation really is and what we must marshall ourselves to do about it.

    I would offer a clean, sustainable and scalable solution with great potential know as space-based solar power. My website, Citizens for Space Based Solar Power (c-sbsp.org), has a good amount of information on this technology and links to many other great resources and groups.

    The National Security Space Office published an updated report on the feasibility of this technology in October of 2007. While space-based solar power will be a complex and costly engineering project, no major technical or scientific breakthroughs are needed. The huge increase in oil prices since then makes the business case for exploring space-based solar power that much more attractive.

    Thank you for your service to our nation and for your attention to this matter of critical importance to our future.

    Respectfully,

    Rob Mahan
    Marietta, Georgia

  • Solution to Fossil Fuel Depletion Problem

    Creative Commons Copyright 2007 - Jason Skinner

    I don’t know why no one has thought of this simple, five step solution to the looming fossil fuel depletion problem facing the world. It’s simple, sustainable and I’m going to share it with the entire world right here, right now … for free.

    1. Gather up all plant and animal matter currently living on the earth and in the oceans.
    2. Bury it all between 7,500 and 15,000 feet underground, preferably beneath an ocean.
    3. Wait 300 to 400 million years.
    4. Drill down to it and pump it all back out of the ground.
    5. Repeat.

    Follow these five simple steps and we will have a never-ending series of 150 year supplies of cheap, abundant fossil fuel.

    (Implementing space-based solar power would actually be cheaper, quicker, environmentally friendlier and every bit as sustainable … if we do it before the current 150 year supply of now-not-so-cheap fossil fuel runs out.)

  • Ad Astra Special Report – Space-Based Solar Power

    Ad Astra ("to the stars"), the award winning magazine of the National Space Society (NSS), has recently published a special report covering space-based solar power (SBSP). This richly illustrated special report explains the technologies behind SBSP in an easy to understand way. Included is a fascinating conversation with Dr. Pete Glaser, now 84 and considered the father of the space-based solar power concept.

    A large portion of the special report details the efforts of the Space-Based Solar Power Study Group who, in conjunction with the National Space Security Office (NSSO), published Space-Based Solar Power As an Opportunity for Strategic Security – Phase 0 Architecture Feasibility Study in October of 2007.

    This special report includes the following five articles which discuss the potential for space-based solar power, with looks at its history, its current strategic importance and ways forward to make it a reality.

    • ENERGY FROM ORBIT – John C. Mankins
    • AN ENERGY PIONEER LOOKS BACK – William Ledbetter
    • STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE – Space-Based Solar Power Study Group
    • A NEW COALITION – Arthur Smith
    • ON THE MOON – Al Globus

    Related Links

  • Sir Arthur C. Clarke : 90 Orbits Around the Sun

    I shed a tear as I read the obituary of Sir Arthur C. Clarke yesterday. He regaled us with science fiction stories based on fantastic ideas of our future, both on and off the planet. He provided scientific commentary to us during the exciting days of Apollo moon missions, alongside Walter Cronkite. And he has given us many scientific ideas which have become realities like communication satellites, geosynchronous orbits and the space station. Sir Arthur also recently lent his support to the Google Lunar X-Prize competition.

    When personal computers would barely fit in your living room let alone on your desk and the Internet was known only to a handful of DARPA researchers as ARPANET, I read a passage in 2001:A Space Odyssey that has stuck with me for over 30 years. It wasn’t even part of the story. It was a short note at the end of the book that said “The entire manuscript for this book was sent from Sri Lanka to my publisher in New York City on a single 5-1/4 inch floppy disk.” At that moment, I realized that if I one day become a writer, I could live and work from anywhere in the world. Little did I know what was to come … but I’ll bet Sir Arthur did.

    Sir Arthur C. Clarke left us with three wishes:

    “I would like to see some evidence of extra-terrestrial life.”
    “I would like to see us kick our addiction to oil and adopt clean energy sources.”
    “I dearly wish to see lasting peace established in Sri Lanka.”

    He ends his 90th Birthday Reflections video with this quote from Rudyard Kipling:

    The Appeal

    If I have given you delight
    By aught that I have done,
    Let me lie quiet in that night
    Which shall be yours anon:

    And for that little, little span
    The dead are borne in mind
    Seek not to question other than
    The books I leave behind.

    Rudyard Kipling, 1939

  • 1975 NASA JPL Goldstone Demonstration of Wireless Power Transmission

    The June 5, 1975 NASA JPL Goldstone Demonstration of high power long distance wireless power transmission successfully transmitted 34kw of electrical power a distance of 1.5km at an efficiency of greater than 82%. At the time, it was the world record for high power long distance wireless power transmission.

  • Guy Pignolet on Space Solar Power

    Guy Pignolet from the Sunsat Energy Council gave an interesting presentation about Space Solar Power on 7 February 2008 at a recent LIFT08 Conference.

    To see the presentation on the LIFT08 Conference website, click here: Space Solar Power by Guy Pignolet

  • SBSP FAQ Update

    The SBSP FAQ page has been updated. All questions are now completely answered and several of them contain links to audio answers from the Bright Spot radio interview on the topic of Space Based Solar Power that aired in December of 2007.

  • Debate Topic – Alternative Energy

    The National Federation of State High School Associations – Speech, Debate and Theatre Association (NFHS SDTA) has announced Alternative Energy as the 2008-2009 debate topic. One of the suggested debate resolutions is:

    Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase alternative energy incentives in the United States.

    This is an excellent opportunity for the current generation of students to become aware of and involved in advocacy for space-based solar power. The students of today have much to gain from the development and deployment of space-based solar power since the majority of them will still be alive near the end of the 21st century!

    Space-based solar power would make an excellent topic for a high school debate, research paper of perhaps even a science fair project. Whatever the forum, the more folks that learn about the potential for space-based solar power, the more likely that our political and private sector leaders will become aware of it and influence our energy future as a result.

    The NFHS SDTA debate topic paper “The Crisis in Energy: Can the United States Live with an Insatiable Thirst for More Fossil Fuels?” outlines the many aspects of energy independence and alternative energies very well, however it overlooks the concept of space-based solar power. I will attempt to contact the authors and provide them with resources to learn more about space-based solar power.

  • Three Solutions Needed

    Solar Power Satellite Concept ©Mafic Studios, Inc.

    To borrow a phrase from Newt Gingrich, space-based solar power must become part of the “national conversation”. None of the presidential candidates mention space-based solar in their ideas for our energy future. Even Bill Richardson, former Secretary of Energy who published his views on our energy future in “Leading by Example”, does not even mention the concept of space-based solar power.

    Do we need a nationally recognized spokesman (Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, John Glenn, John Young, Charles Simonyi, Tom Hanks, Mark Harmon, George H. W. Bush, Colin Powell, Norman Schwarzkopf, Al Gore, Burt Rutan, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Francis Everitt, Stephen Hawking, … ) to become the public “face” of space-based solar power? Do we need to hire a marketing or advertising firm to help get the word out on a national level? Do we need to hire a political consulting firm or a defense contractor consulting firm to help navigate the case for space-based solar power inside the beltway?

    I learned that for every complex problem, there is a technical solution, a financial solution and a political solution. If you don’t answer all three, you don’t have a complete solution. There appears to be a lot of focus on the technical solution for space-based solar power (which of the three, I often think is the easiest to solve), but I’m not hearing or finding a lot on the financial or political solutions.

    Help me help figure out “What comes next?” so we can get started on a complete solution for space-based solar power that will lead America to energy and fossil fuel independence and enhanced national security.

    Image: Solar Power Satellite Concept ©Mafic Studios, Inc.

  • Space-Based Solar Power Radio Interview

    My first exposure to the media as a self-appointed advocate for space-based solar power happened on December 28, 2007 on Dot Blum’s Atlanta radio show, Bright Spot. After many nights of preparation, the hour went by quickly and a few more citizens have now heard about space-based solar power and its potential to lead the way to energy independence for America and our allies.

    If you missed the live broadcast of the show, you can listen to it right here! I would be grateful for your comments and suggestions on this interview.