A primary focus of this Spacefaring America blog has been addressing the challenge America and the free world faces in undertaking an orderly transition to practicable sustainable energy. The survivability of America and the free world this century depends on successfully undertaking this transition and doin so peacefully and while remaining free and prosperous. Other than an asteroid impact or a nuclear war initiated by a madman, this is the single existential threat we all now face. It is America’s now ongoing but largely ignored energy security crisis!!
In 2007, I was asked to support a study of space-based solar power, commonly known as simply space solar power or SSP, undertaken by an office in the then Department of Defense. This study was led by Mr. John Mankins, well known within the SSP community.
While my support focused on what I call “astrologistics”, I came away from the study wondering why, given the excellent reasons for the Government to support SSP as explained by Mr. Mankins, that no such enthusiastic support existed. Recall that in 2007, the United States was then still substantially oil insecure and was heavily engaged in what seemed endless warfare that orbited about America’s need for Middle East oil.
To satisfy my curiosity, I undertook my own study of the central issue of returning America to being energy secure. Obviously, this was not going to be achieved using non-sustainable fossil carbon fuels. I aimed to answer the question of was whether SSP was the only viable option for America and the world. I prepared a 127-page white paper, “The End of Easy Energy and What to Do About It”, reporting my study’s results. This paper is highly quantitative with every key numeric value thoroughly explained in the end notes, something rare to find in such a white paper.
The result of my 2008 study confirmed that SSP-supplied astroelectricity—a term I “invented” much later—was the only viable path to transition away from oil, natural gas, and coal. I then established the Spacefaring Institute™ LLC as a vehicle to advocate for SSP and, especially, the astrologistics—another name I “invented” (I think)—needed to undertake the massive industrialization of outer space needed to build the thousands of SSP platforms, each the size of Manhattan Island, that will be needed.
In 2025, I published my most recent update to the assessment I began in 2008, “Assessment of U.S. Sustainable Energy Needs and Transition Options”. These results and an earlier interim update have been the basis for my SSP advocacy articles for the last several years. As with the 2008 white paper, the 2025 assessment is highly quantitative with all calculations clearly shown in the report.
I posted my papers on ResearchGate for everyone to access for free. Here is a list of what I believe are the key papers discussing the most recent results:
- Assessment of U.S. Sustainable Energy Needs and Transition Options – Summary & Conclusions (Executive summary)
- Assessment of U.S. Sustainable Energy Needs and Transition Options (Full report)
- America Needs a National Astroelectricity Energy Security Transition Policy
- Astroelectricity” America’s National Energy Security Imperative
- America’s Moral Obligation to Develop Astroelectricity
- An Assessment of EEU Decarbonization Options including Astroelectricity
- The Coming Age of Astroelectricity
- Why Expanding Nuclear Power is Not a Wise Choice (Version 1.1)
- Astroelectricity” Why American Engineers Should Advocate for GEO Space Solar Power to End America’s CO2 Emissions, Make America Energy Secure, and Prepare America for the 22nd Century (Ebook)
- The End of Easy Energy and What to Do About It