The SSPS would generate electricity using photovoltaic cells or through concentrated sunlight heating helium to turn gas turbines. The electricity would then be transmitted by microwave beams to rectifying antennae on Earth and then patched into the national grid. This all sounded a bit far-fetched to Brandon, but the technology has been available since the mid-to-late 1980’s. In fact, when working up the plan, in the 1970s, a cost estimate was in the range of $106 billion over a twenty-year time frame, very affordable in today’s economy.
Also, the sale of such electricity could generate about $80 billion per year in revenue. And even if you factor in the inflation since the 1970s and double that figure, the payback would also be adjusted to $160 billion per year. But, since no one has seen fit to begin such a project, Brandon decided the least he could do is write about it:
The Alternative
Give us a place deep in space
Between the Earth and Mars
Where the sun shines bright both day and night
Like all the other stars
There we’ll find the peace of mind
To unite the world as one
No threat of wars on distant shores
The fighting will be done
We all know the way to go
Is forward, never back
We must start soon to mine the moon
To save that which we lack
’Tis not so much the iron and such
But the cost of transportation
The gravity tax would break our backs
And wreak havoc on our nation
And why buy oil from foreign soil
Our future is burning away
Don’t spend our cash on fossil trash
There is a better way
Solar power, every hour
Night or day, it doesn’t matter
The sale of which will make us rich
Our wallets will grow fatter