Hi Spacers

Well here's an interesting bit of news very relevant to Sun-blest, drought-stricken Oz...

http://www.lbl.gov/msd/PIs/Walukiewicz/02/02_8_Full_Solar_Spectrum.html

...if this material can be turned into the hoped for solar cell it will make a whole range of new technologies feasible, one of which is wide-scale desalination in this parched land of Oz. But also with all the talk of space-elevators Solar Satellite Power Systems suddenly become a more feasible prospect.

Bob Zubrin has canned SSPS as requiring $5/kg to LEO to be feasible, but that's assuming the very cumbersome technolgies of Glaser's original late 1960s designs. With higher efficiencies and Fresnel concentrator designs the mass per kilowatt goes down sufficiently that SSPS are feasible for $200/kg to LEO.

With a space elevator we can lug materials to GEO direct without orbitting huge amounts of OTV fuel.

Adam