Sps supplement Rough Draft-endi2011 Alpharetta 2011 / Boyce, Doshi, Hermansen, Ma, Pirani



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Sino-US Space Race Impact



A Sino-American space race would have multiple implications

Saunders, 7- Senior Research Professor at the National Defense University’s Institute for National Strategic Studies (Dr. Phillip C., “China’s Future In Space: Implications for U.S. Security,” 2007, http://www.space.com/adastra/china_implications_0505.html?submit.x=94&submit.y=10&submit=submit)

A key question is whether the United States can prevent potential adversaries from using space for military purposes without making its own space assets more vulnerable. United States doctrine envisions using a range of diplomatic, legal, economic and military measures to limit an adversary's access to space. However China will almost certainly be able to use indigenous development and foreign technology to upgrade its space capabilities. Non-military means may limit Chinese access to some advanced technologies, but they will not prevent the PLA from using space. Despite U.S. economic and technological advantages, an unrestrained space race would impose significant costs and produce few lasting strategic advantages unless the United States can dominate both offensively, by destroying an adversary's space assets, and defensively, by protecting U.S. space assets. Otherwise, the likely result would be mutual (albeit asymmetrical) deterrence, with China building just enough ASATs to threaten U.S. space capabilities. This outcome would also legitimize anti-satellite weapons.


There are many incentives for China to avoid a space race with the U.S.

Saunders, 7- Senior Research Professor at the National Defense University’s Institute for National Strategic Studies (Dr. Phillip C., “China’s Future In Space: Implications for U.S. Security,” 2007, http://www.space.com/adastra/china_implications_0505.html?submit.x=94&submit.y=10&submit=submit)

There are some incentives to avoid confrontation. Proliferation of space weapons would inhibit scientific cooperation and raise costs of commercial satellites. (The global trend in both sectors is towards international collaboration to reduce costs.) Actual use of anti-satellite weapons could create space debris that might damage expensive commercial satellites. Commercial users of space are therefore likely to resist efforts to deploy counter-space capabilities. Beijing's strategic incentives may also change over time. Mindful of the Soviet Union's demise due to excessive military spending, Chinese leaders are wary of entering into an open-ended space race with the United States. Moreover, as Chinese military space capabilities improve and are integrated into PLA operations, the negative impact of losing Chinese space assets may eventually outweigh the potential advantages of attacking U.S. space capabilities. Despite incentives to avoid a space race, arms control solutions face significant obstacles. China has long advocated a treaty to prevent an arms race in outer space. The joint Sino-Russian U.N. working paper, tabled in May 2002, called for a ban on weapons in orbit and on any use of force against outer space objects. The United States has been skeptical about the utility of such a treaty, believing verification would be difficult and that it might limit future missile defense options. A ban on ASAT weapons would be one means of protecting U.S. satellites, but a verifiable ban would be hard to negotiate.

***NEG***

SPS Fails – Barriers



SPS looks good on paper, but there’s too many barriers to solve – cost, cell disruption, and communication failure

Ramos 2k – US Air Force Major, Thesis submitted for the AIR COMMAND AND STAFF COLL MAXWELL Air Force Base (Kim, “Solar Power Constellations: Implications for the United States Air Force,” April, http://handle.dtic.mil/100.2/ADA394928)

Current barriers to implementation are the cost for the system, the high cost of launch services, solar cell inefficiencies, and possible communication frequency interference. The type of solar power satellite architecture proposed has a lot to do with cost. Regardless of the architecture all the designs are on an order of several billions of dollars. This price tag has a tendency to scare away potential investors. The high cost of launches contributes to that estimate. Until the price per pound to put a payload in orbit comes down, this will continue to be a barrier. In addition to cost, the inefficiencies of solar cells are also a barrier to implementation. Solar cells, the main method for harnessing solar power currently have efficiencies in the range of 20%. This means that the solar arrays must be kilometers in size to generate enough power worth beaming back to earth. The final barrier to implementation is frequency interference. In the arena of communications, before scientists conducted experiments, many supposed that there was a potential for interference from the beam on communications systems, radar, and aircraft communications in the geographic area of the beam. 21 A Japanese study conducted in 1993 demonstrated that a high power microwave beam would not be strong enough to interfere with telecommunications. 22 However, most of the articles and research supporting solar power satellites still list frequency or communications interference as an issue to resolve

SPS Not Feasible



Obsessions with SPS have nothing to do with feasibility.

Day, “American space historian and policy analyst and served as an investigator for the Columbia Accident Investigation Board”, 8

[Dwayne A. Day; “Knights in shining armor”, The Space Review; 6/9/2008t; http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1147/1]



The reason that SSP has gained nearly religious fervor in the activist community can be attributed to two things, neither having to do with technical viability. The first reason is increased public and media attention on environmentalism and energy coupled with the high price of gasoline. When even Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are advertised with a global warming message, it’s clear that the issue has reached the saturation point and everybody wants to link their pet project to the global warming discussion. SSP, its advocates point out, is “green” energy, with no emissions—other than the hundreds, or probably thousands, of rocket launches needed to build solar power satellites. The second reason is a 2007 study produced by the National Security Space Office (NSSO) on SSP. The space activist community has determined that the Department of Defense is the knight in shining armor that will deliver them to their shining castles in the sky.
SPS isn’t feasible- no technology right now

EDMONTON JOURNAL 6/12/2011 [“Solar satellites key to green energy”, June 12th, 2011, http://www.edmontonjournal.com/technology/Solar+satellites+green+energy/4933251/story.html MA]

There is a significant design flaw keeping these satellites from production. One of the major shortfalls in the design of SPSs is simply in getting the power from point A to point B. This remains the most controversial aspect of SPSs: the use of microwaves to transmit power from high orbit to the ground. Critics often cite the dangers of microwave radiation to humans and wildlife, however, the strength of the radiation from these beams would be equal to the leakage from a standard microwave oven, which is only slightly more than a cellphone. A NASA report from 1980 reveals that the major concern with solarpowered satellites was problems with the amplifier on the satellite itself. Several workable solutions were proposed in that same report. The report also recommended that NASA develop and invest in SPS technology, so that by the 2000s, these satellites would be a viable alternative fuel source. This recommendation was ignored. We should already have the technology and the infrastructure in place for green energy, but we don't. Instead, we are engaged in a mad dash for the quickest, cheapest alternative to oil and that may be the source of our downfall.



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