In Memoriam: Peter E. Glaser (1923-2014)

[bananas]

Source: National Space Society

The National Space Society is mourning the passing of NSS Board of Governors member Peter E. Glaser on May 29, 2014.

Dr. Peter E. Glaser was Vice President for Advanced Technology at Arthur D. Little, Inc., Cambridge, MA, a company that he was associated with from 1955-1994. After his retirement in 1994, he continued to serve as a consultant to the company for many years.

Dr. Glaser is best known as the inventor of the Solar Power Satellite concept, which he first presented in the journal Science for November 22, 1968 (“Power from the Sun: It’s Future”). In 1973 he was granted a U.S. patent on the Solar Power Satellite to supply power from space for use on the Earth.

Born in Czechoslovakia, Glaser was a survivor of the Holocaust who came to the United States in 1948 and earned an M.S. and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at Columbia University.

Dr. Glaser was project manager for the Apollo 11 Laser Ranging Retroreflecter Array installed on the lunar surface of July 20, 1969, and two other arrays installed on subsequent missions — the only science experiments still in operation on the Moon. He also was responsible for the Lunar Heat Flow Probes and the Lunar Gravimeter which were operational during the Apollo program, and the Initial Blood Storage Experiment flown on the NASA shuttle Columbia (STS-61-C) in January 1986, to explore gravitational effects on human blood cells.

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Read more: http://blog.nss.org/?p=4483

[shenmue]

1. Rest in peace

[LunaSea]

2. Goodbye Pete

And thank you for all your inspiration.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

3. He lived a long life and made positive contributions. Nobody can do better.

His loss also reminds me to make this PSA: if you have a family member who survived the Holocaust, and they have not done so already, and they have the ability -- PLEASE get them to record or write down their testimony. Please get them to leave some kind of reminder of what the Nazis did. Your grandchildren and beyond need to know.

[LongTomH]

4. Thank you, Dr. Glaser for your brilliant concept and your work on behalf of SPS

The 1969 Apollo 11 landing on the moon inspired two brilliant thinkers: Dr. Gerard K. O'Neill of Princeton University and Dr. Peter Glaser. It was a few years later that Gerry O'Neill's work would be directed toward producing Glaser's Solar Power Satellites from lunar or asteroidal material.

Here's a 2011 talk by Dr. Glaser on the Solar Power Satellite. He continued working and promoting the concept until shortly before his death: