Power blackouts bring out ideas for solving the energy problem. MSNBC has an article today reviving an idea that's been around for over three decades now--beaming power from space.

Unfortunately, they only talk to my old friend Dave Criswell, so the discussion is focused on the Moon, and there's little/no mention of solar power satellites. Maybe I'll talk about SPS in my Fox column this week.

Cool! Presumably, you will give just an eentsy weentsy smidgen of credit to Dr. Pournelle.

Credit for what? Why?

Hmmm, L5 anyone?

Dr. Pournelle wrote about this in 1975, or thereabouts, in a series of columns in Galaxy magazine. Later, the columns were collected in his book A Step Farther Out.

In any case, it's a cool idea, one which I hope you successfully spread. Please accept my apologies if I came off a little snotty in my original comment, or spoke out of turn on your excellent blog.

Mike, many people have written about and studied this concept since Peter Glaser first described in in 1968. There wouldn't be much point in singling out Jerry without including many other people, such as Gregg Maryniak, Gordon Woodcock, Ben Bova, David Criswell, etc.