David R. Criswell (July 17, 1941 – September 10, 2019)[1] was the Director of the Institute for Space Systems Operations at the University of Houston. ISSO is the operational agent for the Houston Partnership for Space Exploration.
Criswell received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1963 (graduating cum laude) and a Master of Science degree in Physics in 1964 from the University of North Texas, in Denton, Texas. In 1968, he received a Doctorate degree in space physics and Astronomy from Rice University in Houston, Texas.[2]
Criswell envisioned that this energy source would spur an unprecedented amount of global economic growth (Gross World Product increasing by a factor of 10), while having a positive environmental impact (fossil fuel-burning power plants would be decommissioned). He pointed out that lunar-solar energy would not generate nuclear waste, and is not a finite resource (in the sense that fossil fuels are a finite resource).
He estimated that a 1 GigaWatt demo of the lunar-solar power generation system could be built over a 10-year period for approximately $60 billion in 1990 dollars.[4] (For comparison, the 1.65 GW Benban Solar Park in Egypt cost $4 billion in 2019; however, Benban's delivered power is 430 MW compared to the 1 GW demo which would deliver a full 1 GW.)
In short, Criswell believed that lunar-solar energy is the only viable option for generating the massive amounts of electrical power that would be needed to raise the standard of living in third-world nations to that of first-world nations.
He once said, from the University of Houston, that "We are already well beyond what the biosphere can provide. We have to go outside to get something else."
