Am I the only one who didn't know that the international space station is using solar panels? I saw several articles today about the delivery of the solar panels and the unfurling of the same, by the astronauts on the space shuttle. With a $100 billion space station being constructed, our government must have a lot of confidence in solar power as an energy source if it is using it for the space station. Or is it simply that there's no other effective way to get power there? I guess we can't set up a coal-fired power plant there. In any case, to me it sounds interesting that one of our most major investments in alternative energy lately has been in space. I wish our government was as ambitious about solar use down here on earth. It would be so nice if there was more of a symbiotic relationship between our approach towards energy on earth and in space--e.g. using the sun for both. Granted, the sun can't be an effective energy source for everything on earth at this point, but it seems like the latest technology being used in space could maybe bring us closer to that point.