The Oct. 15, 2007 issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology reports that "NASA plans to end ISS operations on Dec. 31, 2015.  It has no plans to continue funding beyond Fiscal 2016.  So what to do with this costly facility?  And just what in the name of the stars is SBSP?

On Oct. 10, 2007 the US National Security Space Office released an interim report entitled, "Space-Based Solar Power As an Opportunity for Strategic Security" during a press event at the National Press Club.  During the briefing, USMC Lt. Col. Paul Damphousse of the NSSO and Managed Energy Technologies LLC Co-founder and COO John Mankins explained that the ISS could provide a testbed for scalable components of a SBSP.

Now that's an ideal use for an orbiting facility.

You can download the report and other information at the Space Frontier Foundation's website here.  The Foundation was instrumental in gathering information for this report by providing a public website for open dialogue here, the first time a Dept. of Defense project has been carried out this way.