Energy From Space or A Job For SpaceShipOne

Posted by tomo at 01:19 PM in science . | 4 Comments

Wired News is running a story right now about beaming concentrated solar energy from orbit back to Earth. Unfortunately, it seems that NASA has given up on funding research on the idea as a matter of priority. Another victim of bureaucratic short-sightedness? But maybe this is where ultracheap space launches will save the day. Could this be a reason for non-yuppy space vacationers to get excited about SS1?

And some fodder for the c-theorists:

The United States "doesn't have the political will to fund the research" because of pressure from fossil-fuel lobbyists, Marzwell said. "We could have become the Saudi Arabia of the world electricity market," Marzwell said. But because the coal and oil industries don't want threats to their profits, they applied political pressure, causing the program to be scrapped, according to Marzwell.

Of course, there's always mining the moon for helium-3...