All things green are getting a thorough look with oil poised to bust through $100/barrel as Russia, Venezuela, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria and other major exporters view high prices as a time to reap profits and consolidate political control rather than feed the goose that is laying the golden eggs–i.e. invest. One hope for cheap clean energy (energy independence is at our fingertips if we decide to widely deploy coal-to-liquid technology used by SASOL in South Africa and is estimated to cost $35/barrel by Wikipedia) is space based solar power (SBSP). But Taylor Dinerman gets to the key roadblock to SBSP in his Space Review article today, “The chicken and the egg: RLVs and space-based solar power”:

The SBSP Study Group universally acknowledged that a necessary pre-requisite for the technical and economic viability of SBSP was inexpensive and reliable access to orbit….

Phase one proposes a strategy that will