Designing a Public Programme: Stage Gates
If a government decided to develop space solar power, how should it structure the programme to limit the money at risk?
Chapter summary
as a sequence of gated stages, each with a clear technical test, a capped budget and a decision to continue or stop.
Key takeaways
- 1
Space solar power is a long and uncertain path, so the main risk to public money is continuing to pay for a programme after the evidence has turned against it, or stopping just before a breakthrough.
- 2
Setcoin's suggested structure has five gates, from component tests on the ground to a pilot plant, with spending rising by about an order of magnitude at each stage.
- 3
Each gate tests one of the conditions in Chapter 86.
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