ABSTRACT
The project of the Solar Power Satellite (SPS) has been discussed since the early 1970s. Balancing the advantages, however, are a number of limitations inherent in a system of great complexity. Glaser P. E. estimation of costs for a 1990 SPS are based on ever decreasing dollars per kilowatt figures for solar panels and decreasing costs for the transport to orbit in dollars per kilogram. Energy balance analysis has been made with the result that the energy ratio resulting from a Monte Carlo simulation is centered at a factor of 2 for the energy ratio or the energy gain figure. This is on the low side for any other energy system if fuel costs are not included. As synchronous orbiters are steadily increasing in number and as the synchronous sphere around the Earth begins to be crowded, there is less chance that such SPSs will be put into orbit as their microwave fields would seriously hamper communication satellites in orbit.
