Living in Space:Energy Space is full of radiant energy and beyond the Earth's atmosphere this energy flows from the sun more steadily and more intensely than that which penetrates the surface of the Earth. So an abundant and essential source of energy that would be used in space for the space colony would be solar radiation through the development of satellite solar power plants. To live in space, humans must be protected from the ferocious intensity and penetrating wavelengths of unattenuated sunlight, but this same energy is one of space's primary resources. The colony will need to have enough energy to maintain a fairly uniform temperature even if you are in a hurry. The sun shines twenty-four hours a day and is not obscured by the atmosphere. Materials that are shaded and not exposed to direct sunlight will be near absolute zero. While the temperature in closed bodies exposed to the sun can rise above the boiling point. The colony will need to have both heaters and air conditioners. On the other hand, solar energy can be converted into electricity in the colonies. It will be converted with 10% efficiency into electricity sold at a rate of 0.012 kw/hour, one square kilometer of space would bring in more than $14,000,000 each year. By converting solar energy into electricity in space, we would build satellite solar power plants that can intercept sunlight and convert it into electricity. Satellite solar power plants could intercept enough sunlight to replace five nuclear reactors or coal-fired power plants. The stations could be as large as nine miles long and four miles wide and would weigh only twenty thousand tons. It would be built with hollow triangular aluminum beams which are very quick and easy to build. Solar satellites are a non-polluting way to generate electricity and cost no more than coal or nuclear power. Two major stations have been planned so far. One is designed by Peter Glaser of author D.Little Inc., which would use very large arrays of photovoltaic cells to make the conversion directly into energy. The other major project is by GordonWoodcock of Boeing Aircraft Corporation, who proposes to have conventional turbogenerators operating on a Brayton cycle with helium as the working fluid. The key product of solar power plants are solar cells, which perform the actual conversion of energy into electricity. A useful material found in lunar soil is silicon which is used to make solar cells. So we can produce a large quantity of these cells and therefore we can avoid any problem of transporting the material from the earth. The cells convert sunlight directly into electricity and this could be used to provide electricity for the