Ad astra has a new special report covering the renewed attention being paid to Space Based Solar Power as a solution for a range of strategic and environmental issues:

One quick highlight was this amusing anecdote on the reasons behind the subtle shift in nomenclature for this concept from “Space Solar Power (SSP)” to “Space Based Solar Power (SBSP)” (which I missed earlier on the Space Solar Power (SSP!) blog):

Many people familiar with the concept of space solar power (SSP), or solar power satellites (SPS) wondered where and why after 40 years of consistency, the Pentagon would decide to rechristen it “space-based solar power,” or SBSP.

If one is trading many e-mails, typing space solar power gets tedious. So like any good military organization, abbreviations become the language of choice. But in the early stages, one of the core study members had a firewall that would kick-back or “disappear” any e-mail with “SSP” in it. Apparently some monetary, provocative, or medical scam had used the acronym, and it was thus blocked by a spam filter. Despite pleadings to allow these official e-mails, the IT powers-that-be would not relent. Therefore the recipient begged for a re-title of “SSP” to “SBSP” so the e-mails could get through. So, a four-decade history of common nomenclature was replaced because of IT inflexibility, or alternately, because of some illicit spammer that had an alternate definition of SSP.