NASA is taking a fresh look at the possibility of generating power in space
and beaming it down to Earth, despite deciding more than 20 years ago that the
idea was not feasible.
Collecting solar energy in space is attractive because sunlight there can be
eight times stronger than on Earth, and there’s no shortage of real estate in
which to place solar panels. The problem is getting the power station up and the
energy down.
With an estimated price tag of around $250 billion, NASA’s first
designs for orbiting power stations in the late 1970s were hopelessly expensive.
“All…
