HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif.-Industry, academia, and government officials continue to invest heavily in alternative energy sources - ranging from solar and laser power to algae oil-for military and aerospace applications. An industry team led by The Boeing Co. in Huntington Beach, Calif., won a $15.5 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., for work on Phase 2 of the organization's Fast Access Spacecraft Testbed (FAST) program to develop an ultra-lightweight, high-power generation system (HPGS) that generates as much as 175 kilowatts.

FAST, combined with electric propulsion, is expected to form "the foundation for future self-deployed, high-mobility spacecraft to perform ultra-high-power communications, space radar, satellite transfer, and servicing missions," says a Boeing official.

Engineers at Boeing Phantom Works of Huntington Beach, Calif., are leading the effort, with support from Boeing Network and Space Systems in El Segundo, Calif.

Phase 2 activities will include: designing, fabricating, and integrating test articles; performing component-level evaluations; and running full-scale system tests.

"FAST offers significant cost and performance benefits to commercial, civil, and national security customers, including new high-power applications to provide a cost-effective means for spacecraft to travel to the outer solar system," says Tom Kessler, FAST program manager at Boeing Advanced Network and Space Systems.

The Boeing-led team includes: DR Technologies in Parsippany, N.J.; Northrop Grumman Astro Aerospace in Carpinteria, Calif; Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas; EMCORE Corp. in Albuquerque, N.M.; Boeing subsidiary Spectrolab Inc. in Sylmar, Calif; and other key suppliers.

To date, the team has developed a preliminary design for an HPGS providing more than 130 watts per kilogram on a compact system, roughly half the weight and one sixth the size of an existing on- orbit solar power system. "The size efficiency of the HPGS enables a new class of compact spacecraft that can self-deploy from low-Earth orbit to reach final orbit using electric propulsion," says a representative. "This permits the use of smaller, less expensive launch vehicles that can support high-value science missions to the outer solar system without the need for expensive radioisotope power systems."

Decision-makers at the U.S.