Robert BellExecutive DirectorSociety of Satellite Professionals Int’l

Why Space Solar Power Needs the Satellite Industry On Its Side

A long, long time ago…

This way to the Promised Land!!!

A long, long time ago…

This way to the Promised Land!!!

The same story today

The same story today

The GEO Neighborhood

It’s crowded up here

Really crowded

Welcome to the neighborhood!Let’s get acquainted.

What the industry has to offer

+400 satellites in GEO

$117 bn in revenue

Legal rights to orbital slots

Regulatory protection of microwave frequencies

More experience designing for and operating in space than anyone else

Long horizons for capital investment

And…we really arerocket scientists!

Industry opinions

Chief Engineer whose first job was planning SSP for

Boeing in the 70s

VP Satellite Operations

Investment banker in the satellite & space industries

Dr. Satellite

Concerns about technology

For operation in GEO, the Tech Readiness Level of SSP is low (est. 3 out of 10)

• Few underlying technologies are proven in orbit except power generation (for satellites)

• Only small-scale terrestrial tests of power-beaming to date

• Challenges to space-based testing hinder development

Concerns about scale

Scale problems are massive

• Need to put 10,000-30,000 metric tons into orbit – ISS is 40 metric tons

• Need to generate multiple Gw – ISS generates 300-400 Kw

• Need to build something with 10 km wingspan – ISS is 150 m

• Technology can only be proven at large scale due to wavelength of transmission and distance from Earth

Can it be done? Certainly…with enough money behind it

Concerns about communications

Interference and regulations

• SSP power beaming would render certain microwave bands all but unusable, with biggest impact on terrestrial mobile

• Out-of-band emissions could be a huge problem if not controlled

• Spectrum regulation is both international and national, highly complex and highly controversial

Exciting opportunity

A communications satellite earns its owner about $250m in revenue and delivers about $2bn in value to society a year

Selling 5 GW of SSP at 5 cents per Kw per year would have the same results

If successful, SSP could dwarf the commercial satcom industry

Upsides for the industry

Development of SSP would drive valuable innovation:

• Radical reductions in launch costs required to put all that mass in orbit

• Highly efficient electric propulsion to transfer from LEO to GEO

• Proven modular in-orbit construction and repair technologies

• Big gains in efficiency of solar power generation

• More efficient antenna systems

Message for SSP innovators

“Work on the enabling technologies: launch, electric propulsion, in-orbit construction and repair, solar efficiency.”

“The research & industrialization effort could help our space communications activities survive long-term competition from terrestrial systems.”

Message for SSP innovators

“It will be hard.Keep working on it.”

Robert BellExecutive DirectorSociety of Satellite Professionals Int’l

Why Space Solar Power and the Satellite Industry Need Each Other