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Communication satellites are a $144 billion industry. Is there any space-based industry that could possibly beat that market?'Solar Power Satellites'shows why and how the space satellite industry will soon begin expanding its market from relaying signals to Earth to generating energy in space and delivering it to the ground as electricity. In all industrialized nations, energy demand is growing exponentially. In the developing world, the need for energy is as basic as food and water. The Sun's energy is available everywhere, and it is non-polluting. As business plans demonstrate its technical feasibility, commercial potential, and environmental acceptability, every country on Earth will look to space for the power it needs.

In March 2000, NASA's Office of Space Flight asked the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board of the National Research Council to perform an independent assessment of the space solar power program's technology investment strategy to determine its technical soundness and its contribution to the roadmap that NASA has developed for this program. The program's investment strategy was to be evaluated in the context of its likely effectiveness in meeting the program's technical and economic objectives.