A decade ago, Col. M. V. “Coyote” Smith, while working for the Pentagon’s National Security Space Office, was given a mission to save the world – without any money and a six-month deadline.

He jumped at the challenge.

His space-based solar power proposal is in the running to win perhaps as much as $10 billion to develop and deploy such systems. Smith’s DOD proposal, entitled “Carbon-Free Energy for Global Resilience and International Goodwill,” is one of six finalists selected out of 500 entries for the Department of Defense’s first-time innovation challenge for the D3 [Diplomacy, Development, Defense] Summit.

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