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NASA looks for new ways to harness Sun's energy for Earth and space

NASA has selected 23 proposals from organizations across the nation for negotiations leading to contract awards that could result in development of revolutionary space-based power generating systems to harness the Sun's energy for use on Earth and in space.

Total value of the contracts is estimated at $6.4 million and work will begin immediately, assuming successful completion of negotiations. The selection team was led by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

NASA is seeking new concepts and technology demonstrators for commercially viable space solar power generation technologies that could provide energy for Earth and vehicles traveling in space.

"Ultimately, we'd like to put a 'power generation station' into space," said Axel Roth, head of the Flight Projects Directorate and selection team lead at the Marshall Center. "The 'power station' would harness the Sun's energy for use on Earth and by spacecraft traveling through the solar system."

Selected to provide space solar power concepts are

• Auburn University, Auburn, Ala.
• The Boeing Co.'s Phantom Works, Seattle
• Essential Research Inc., Cleveland
• ILC Dover Inc., Frederica, Del.
• Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver
• Rockwell Science Center, Thousand Oaks, Calif.
• Sundstrand Aerospace, Rockford, Ill.
• Texas Engineering Experiment Station at Texas A&M University, College Station
• University of Illinois at Chicago
• Boeing North American Inc., Downey, Calif.
• Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh
• ENTECH Inc., Keller, Texas
• Microwave Sciences Inc., Lafayette, Calif.
• The Aerospace Corporation, Los Angeles
• American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Reston, Va.
• Futron Corp., Bethesda, Md.
• Ohio Aerospace Institute, Cleveland
• Science Applications International Corp., Houston
• Space Frontier Foundation, Nyack, N.Y.
• Strategic Insight Ltd., Arlington, Va.

Note to Editors/News Directors: Interviews supporting this release are available to media representatives by contacting Tim Tyson of the Marshall Media Relations Office at 256-544-0994. For an electronic version of this release and a fact sheet on the selection, visit Marshall's News Center on the Web at: http://www.msfc.nasa.gov/news

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