Construction of Satellite Solar Power Stations from Nonterrestrial Materials

Abstract

O'Neill has suggested that space manufacturing facilities processing nonterrestrial materials could be used to produce satellite solar power stations which could supply electricity to the Earth in economic competition with current and envisaged energy sources. A recent summer study determined that existing designs for satellite power stations could be largely constructible from lunar materials. Cost estimates based on lift by shuttle-derived vehicles indicates that, for a total investment of approximately $100 billion, rapid production could be established with twenty 10,000 MW power stations on-line some time in the 1990's and with cost-effective exponential growth thereafter. Total transportation costs were found to be less than that for any planned Earth-based launch system. The total investment would be several times less than that planned for capital expansion of electric generating capacity in the United States. Mass driver tugs, using space-shuttle tankage as reaction mass, could serve as low-to-high Earth orbit transportation, reducing front-end cost estimates further. Selected Apollo and Amor asteroids whose velocity intervals are lower than that from the lunar surface could be used as raw materials for space manufacturing at perhaps even lower cost. For example, a mass driver tug assembled from approximately 50 shuttle flights, could retrieve an approximatelymore » 10/sup 7/ ton asteroid for space manufacturing in high orbit within a few years. Such a mission could be automated using portions of the asteroid itself as reaction mass and could provide the materials for approximately 10 satellite power stations.« less