Space-Based Solar Power Breakthrough to Be Announced

First-of-a-Kind Long-Distance Demonstration of Solar-Powered Wireless Power Transmission Technology

What: Space solar power could be a clean, renewable solution to America’s long-term energy needs. John C. Mankins, former manager of NASA’s Exploration Systems Research and Technology Program, and one of the foremost experts on space solar power, will announce on Friday a milestone demonstration of the critical technology enabling SSP: long-distance, solar-powered wireless power transmission.

The project demonstrated wireless power transmission between two Hawaiian islands 148 kilometers apart, more than the distance from the surface of Earth to the boundary of space.

It will be featured in an hour-long special that evening on Discovery Channel as part of DISCOVERY PROJECT EARTH, an eight-part series on the most ambitious geo-engineering ideas to tackle global climate change and the need for new and sustainable energy sources.

Space-based solar power, in which large satellites would collect plentiful solar energy in orbit and beam it safely down to Earth, could one day reduce our carbon emissions to virtually zero. It is the only energy technology that is clean, renewable, constant and capable of providing power to virtually any location on Earth.

Mankins will describe the demonstration project and show a realistic plan forward to develop this promising technology.

When: Friday, September 12, 2008 at 9:30am

Where: National Press Club, Lisagor Room
529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor
Washington, DC 20045
202-662-7500

Who: John C. Mankins, COO of Managed Energy Technologies LLC
Mark Hopkins, Senior Vice President, National Space Society

Hosted by: National Space Society

Please RSVP to:

Katherine Brick
katherine.brick@nss.org
(202) 429-1600

About National Space Society

The National Space Society (NSS) is an independent, grassroots organization dedicated to the creation of a spacefaring civilization. Founded in 1974, NSS is widely acknowledged as the preeminent citizen’s voice on space. NSS counts thousands of members and more than 50 chapters in the United States and around the world. The society also publishes Ad Astra magazine, an award-winning periodical chronicling the most important developments in space. For more information about NSS, visit www.nss.org.