Lessons from the 1979 Reference System
What did the first full study of a solar power satellite conclude, and which of its lessons still hold?
Chapter summary
the US Department of Energy and NASA studied a 5-gigawatt reference satellite between 1976 and 1980.
Key takeaways
- 1
It had a solar array about 5 by 10 kilometres, a transmitting antenna about a kilometre across at 2.45 GHz and an elliptical rectenna about 10 by 13 kilometres, and the programme envisaged a fleet of sixty satellites.
- 2
The study found no physical barrier but enormous costs, chiefly launch and in-space construction, and it proposed a heavy-lift reusable launcher and large crewed construction bases in orbit.
- 3
Four lessons still hold: diffraction fixes antenna sizes, launch dominates cost, assembly is the hardest engineering problem, and safety must be designed in from the start.
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