Quote:
Originally Posted by Astromancer
Orbital power generation isn't that much of a problem. Building and running a circumlunar infrastructure to build, maintain and operate orbital power satellites is a big problem. It is truly raining soup up there. Getting there at an acceptable price and surviving are the problems. But power generation would be easy.
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There are a
lot of unanswered practical questions associated with the SPS concept (or reactors in orbit or whatever).
Environmental effects of the microwave beams passing through the atmosphere on a steady basis. Practical cost of maintenance of the solar arrays in orbit. Degradation of the arrays over time. Vulnerability to sabotage/attack. Etc.
Advocates have their answers for these points, but all such answers are mostly hypothetical. We just don't know if there's any practical way to make SPS economically competitive with ground-based solar, much less ground-based nuclear and fossil fuel. It doesn't look hopeful.