
Will the stars align for space-based solar power? - ivey
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009/07/will-the-stars-align-for-space-based-solar-power.ars#
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russell
Powersat and a couple of other companies have some ingenious engineering that
reduce the weight of a power sat to 10 tons, putting the satellite within the
launch capabilities of SpaceX and the like.

I have been skeptical because the cost of a launch has always been high
relative to the costs of trucks going to a ground based solar array. Powersat,
however, says that its satellites will be economical when launch costs drop
50-75%, which seems achievable.

There is a second part, "running the numbers" at
[http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009/07/running-the-
numb...](http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009/07/running-the-numbers-on-
space-based-solar.ars)

