I’ve written about the benefits of Space Based Solar Power before, here and here. Unfortunately one weakness that I have is I tend to be too American-centric, and concentrated on how space based solar would help Americans, which it would, and forgot there is a whole world out there with some places that could get even more benefit from space based solar than the US.
India is a country that would benefit greatly from Space Based Solar. With a billion people they are very concentrated into large cities. The bigger the city the less effective ground based solar is and more effective Space Based Solar becomes.
The dream of Space Based Solar is coming one step closer to reality with the Kalam-NSS Initiative . The idea is that India has the greatest need for Space Based Solar and the US has or is building the infrastructure to build the project. A joint venture between the countries makes huge economic sense. If India is the first country to build a solar space station with the help of the US they get a new source of power and the US gets thousands of jobs in the space industry, it’s a win-win proposition.
As I’ve noted before all the intermediate steps; a super heavy lift launcher, an ion tug to move stuff from low Earth orbit to Geostationary orbit, lighter solar panel, ect. These are all good by themselves. Once the first solar space station is made the others will be cheaper as we can use the experience gained to lower costs.
This initiative is a good step towards a fantastic future.
By Darrell B. Nelson author of Invasive Thoughts
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