"Reinventing the Solar Power Satellite" paper

Ian Stirling wrote in message ...
Robert Lee wrote:
I was wondering if you worked out how high the price of oil has to be in
order for an SPS project to be profitable.

This is going to be as contraversial as the Drake equation.
There are so many possible variables.
What do you pick for launch cost?
Is it $6000/Kg, or $30/Kg launched by some sort of tether.
Are you using near-term 200W/Kg solar panels, or are you assuming
thin-film manufacturing breakthroughs, solar-dynamic, or...

What is the size of the recieving arrays, how close are they
together, how big are they, can you use the land under them, do you
need to keep aeroplanes out, ......

All of these are variables.
It's quite easy to generate numbers that vary by a factor of at least
a thousand.

Do we use direct space launch, which would be the cheapest for a few
GW, or do we go and capture NEOs, which would be much cheaper for a
few Terawatts?