Military Target: Solar-Beaming Sats

Last month, a man at a bar introduced himself as "Coyote," and told me he was working on the Pentagon's plans to build a string of satellites that beamed solar rays down to Earth.

My first thought was to call my wife, the psychiatrist.

I resisted, however. And I was glad I did. Turned out the guy was an Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, "Coyote" was his call sign, and he was very serious and (mostly) sane.

The government -- especially NASA -- has, for decades, toyed with the idea of collecting sunshine, and shooting it to power everything from lunar bases to the terrestrial grid. The space agency just backed a conference at MIT last month on this very subject. But two problems always arose: the collecting "rectennas" would have to be massive (10 square kilometers, in one estimate), and the costs could soar even higher.

Now, the Defense Department is going to see if it can come up with ways to overcome these not-inconsiderable obstacles. Pentagon "officials have decided to examine this concept now because the military is growing increasingly dependent on fossil fuels -- a dependency that is causing the United States to rely on unreliable sources of energy, pay higher prices and face operational insecurities linked to the logistical burden of delivering oil on the battlefield,"
Inside Defense says.

National Security Space Office director Maj. Gen. James Armor has tasked Lt. Col. M.V. "Coyote" Smith and others to make an official study into the feasibility of space-based solar power by 2025 or 2030, and report back by September. (We first noted the possibility of this study in April.)

Through the study, officials are also trying to “identify all the collateral-type of technologies that go into building space-based solar power so that we can break those down and perhaps identify those with additional emphasis as we press forward with budgeting and programming over the next several years,” Smith said.

Scientists who have considered this concept are either enthusiastic or skeptical, Smith said. “We’re pretty confident that the truth lies somewhere in the middle.”

He added that the study is not a way for DOD [Department of Defense] to jump into a “new program with wild enthusiasm, but it is a time to take a look at a new concept with prudent caution and step forward smartly.”

But even as the Pentagon embarks on this study, Smith clarified that the
Pentagon is not interested in creating and deploying such an energy satellite network.

“DOD does not want to do this,” Smith said.

But he figures there's enough promise -- imagine large bases in the desert, powered just by sunlight -- that it's worth a couple of months of study. And a little bar talk.