[ExI] Japan and power sats

[BillK]

On Sat, May 3, 2014 at 7:47 PM, Adrian Tymes wrote:
> Yeah, there's no question we could do this.  And JAXA is known to have been
> working on it.  The question is, how far will they get before cutting
> funding and putting the project on indefinite hiatus?
>
>

Optimistic article from Thomas Frey hopes that this is the start of a
new Space Race to build space power stations.

<http://www.futuristspeaker.com/2014/05/the-next-great-space-race-space-based-power-stations/>

Quotes:
Many other countries won't be comfortable with Japan having the
world's only expertise in building space-based power stations. Once
the first one proves successful, it will become faster and cheaper to
launch the next 10, or even 100 of them. With Japan throwing down the
gauntlet, they are effectively forcing China, Russia, and the U.S. to
compete in an entirely new kind of space race.
Every year of technological advancement brings a drop in the cost of
building it. In the 1980s, the cost was estimated to be over $1
trillion. But by 2030, the cost is anticipated to drop to the $20
billion range.
At first blush, most will imagine a space-based solar array powering
our energy hungry businesses on earth, but that's only part of the
equation. It can be used to power an entire solar-system of devices,
that will grow exponentially over the coming decades much like an
Internet of Things in space.
While most haven't acknowledged it yet, the new space race has just begun.
--------

BillK