Solar Power Satellites; the emerging energy option

New York: Ellis Horwood, 1993. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Very good/No DJ present. xxii, [2], 300, [2] pages. Decorative cover. Illustrations (Figures, Tables). References. This work is organized into five parts: Part 1 The solar power satellite concept; Part 2 Perceptions about energy for planet Earth civilization; Part 3 International SPS-related activities; Part 4 Earth-based and space-based infrastructure considerations; and Part 5 Staged scenario for SPS development. There is a Directory of Contributors, Author biographies, Foreword and Introduction. This work provides a comprehensive review of current state-of-the-art in this important and rapidly growing area. Presents a framework for the developments needed to decrease reliance upon nonrenewable energy sources. Describes an approach to mitigate global warming and ecological degradation. Addresses technical, economic and social issues. Peter Glaser was a space pioneer who introduced the idea of using satellites to beam solar energy from space down to Earth. Over the decades, the novel technology Glaser envisioned has been known by many names ? space-based solar power (SBSP), solar-power satellites or satellite power system (SPS), as well as satellite solar-power system (SSPS). Glaser was born in Czechoslovakia in 1923 and came to the United States in 1948. His contributions to space science and technology were not limited to the solar-power satellite concept; he also worked on NASA's Apollo moon missions and headed an experiment that flew aboard the space shuttle Columbia in 1986. In July 1971, while working for the consulting firm Arthur D. Little, Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Glaser filed for a U.S. patent for his "Method and Apparatus for Converting Solar Radiation to Electrical Power." Glaser envisioned harvesting solar radiation in space using satellites, which would convert it to microwave energy and then transmit it to Earth for use in electrical power systems. He obtained the patent in 1973. In fostering the idea, Glaser drew upon his extensive expertise in space science and technology, solar energy conversion and wireless power transmission. He later became a vocal advocate of solar power satellite systems as a solution to the growing global energy dilemma. Prior to his notoriety as "father of the solar-power satellite," Glaser was project manager for the Apollo 11 Lunar Ranging Retroreflector Array installed on the moon's surface in July 1969, and two other arrays installed during follow-on Apollo landing missions. Glaser also was responsible for the Lunar Heat Flow Probes and the Lunar Gravimeter used in the Apollo program.