DISCOVERY On SSP

As reported in this blog last week, the DISCOVERY CHANNEL ran a special Friday night that documented, among other things, an attempt to beam power from Maui to the big island of Hawaii. The point of the attempt was to demonstrate power could be beamed through sixty miles of atmosphere, as would be done from a solar power satellite to deliver energy to Earth.

A media alert put out by the National Space Society before the program ran said the test was a success. Well, almost. It did show power can be beamed over distance; instruments aboard a helicopter did indeed detect the beam sixty miles out from its origination point. The program did not show, however, the beam hitting its target on Hawaii. Presumably, that didn't happen. The beam, in fact, split in two at some point, one stronger and one weaker.

The attempt does show promise. Many issues-- financial, political, environmental, and technological-- remain to be resolved, but the concept is extremely attractive. Thirty years of work across all those fronts could conceivably build the energy basis for human civilization for millenia.