The Pentagon’s National Security Space Office has released a six-month study that concludes the US could use space-based solar power as an “inexhaustible supply of clean energy,” reports Brian Berger of Space.com (article via USA Today). The report recommends that the US fund in-depth studies and technology demonstrations to prove the viability of space-based solar power. The power could also supply forward bases, eliminating the need to convoy in fossil fuels. However, a NSSO spokesman said he thought it unlikely that the Pentagon would fund the technology; he believes it more rightly belongs with NASA or the Department of Energy.
An Air Force F-16 pilot designed a collapsible ladder that weighs just six pounds and folds into the unused cockpit map case.