Power/energy: First steps to the Solar Power Satellite: Guidelines issued by the Department of Energy and NASA provide a reference point for an ambitious program

Capturing the sun's awesome energy in space, above the earth's dense, cloudy atmosphere, has been a dream of solar-energy proponents for more than a decade. In the 1960s the success of the space program and the interest in solar energy led to the proposed synergism of solar energy conversion and space technology to send power from space to earth. Thus was born the concept for the Solar Power Satellite (SPS). As conceived, the SPS would convert solar energy to microwaves and beam the energy to collecting antennas on the ground for conversion to usable electricity.