Engineers and visionaries have been pursuing space-based solar power (SSP) generation for decades. Robert Bell, executive director of the Society of Satellite Professionals In'tl, explains why the satellite industry is SSP's best potential partner as well as an industry already operating in GEO with issues and concerns it needs taken into account.

1. Robert Bell
Executive Director
Society of Satellite Professionals Int’l
Why Space Solar
Power Needs the
Satellite Industry
On Its Side

2. A long, long time ago…
This way to the
Promised Land!!!

3. A long, long time ago…
This way to the
Promised Land!!!

4. The same story today

5. The same story today
The GEO Neighborhood

6. It’s crowded up here

7. Really crowded
Welcome to the neighborhood!
Let’s get acquainted.

8. What the industry has to offer
 +400 satellites in GEO
 $117 bn in revenue
 Legal rights to orbital slots
 Regulatory protection of
microwave frequencies
 More experience designing
for and operating in space
than anyone else
 Long horizons for capital
investment
And…
we really are
rocket scientists!

9. Industry opinions
Chief Engineer whose first
job was planning SSP for
Boeing in the 70s
VP Satellite Operations
Investment banker in the
satellite & space industries
Dr. Satellite

10. Concerns about technology
For operation in GEO, the Tech
Readiness Level of SSP is low
(est. 3 out of 10)
• Few underlying technologies are
proven in orbit except power
generation (for satellites)
• Only small-scale terrestrial tests of
power-beaming to date
• Challenges to space-based testing
hinder development

11. Concerns about scale
Scale problems are massive
• Need to put 10,000-30,000 metric
tons into orbit – ISS is 40 metric tons
• Need to generate multiple Gw – ISS
generates 300-400 Kw
• Need to build something with 10 km
wingspan – ISS is 150 m
• Technology can only be proven at
large scale due to wavelength of
transmission and distance from Earth
Can it be done? Certainly…with
enough money behind it

12. Concerns about communications
Interference and regulations
• SSP power beaming would render
certain microwave bands all but
unusable, with biggest impact on
terrestrial mobile
• Out-of-band emissions could be a
huge problem if not controlled
• Spectrum regulation is both
international and national, highly
complex and highly controversial

13. Exciting opportunity
A communications satellite earns
its owner about $250m in
revenue and delivers about $2bn
in value to society a year
Selling 5 GW of SSP at 5 cents
per Kw per year would have
the same results
If successful, SSP could dwarf the
commercial satcom industry

14. Upsides for the industry
Development of SSP would drive
valuable innovation:
• Radical reductions in launch costs
required to put all that mass in orbit
• Highly efficient electric propulsion to
transfer from LEO to GEO
• Proven modular in-orbit construction
and repair technologies
• Big gains in efficiency of solar power
generation
• More efficient antenna systems

15. Message for SSP innovators
“Work on the enabling
technologies: launch, electric
propulsion, in-orbit construction
and repair, solar efficiency.”
“The research & industrialization
effort could help our space
communications activities
survive long-term competition
from terrestrial systems.”

16. Message for SSP innovators
“It will be hard.
Keep working on it.”

17. Robert Bell
Executive Director
Society of Satellite Professionals Int’l
Why Space Solar
Power and the
Satellite Industry
Need Each Other