Obviously, our study would run the risk of being too shallow if we attempt to cover the entire multitude of identified magnetospheric issues. We consequently focus our efforts primarily upon the issues connected with the injections of free energy and of mass into the magnetosphere (including the evolution of the injected free energy) because we deem these issues to be of more immediate concern to human activities in space and on the ground. Included in our consideration are, among others, the magnetospheric injections of solar electric propulsion vehicles, which use ionized argon gas as propellant, and of chemical propulsion vehicles, which would release neutral hydrogen and oxygen in the magnetosphere. Effects induced by these magnetospheric modifications include radiation belt dosage modification, auroral activity modification, optical earth-sensor interference, possible communication interference and possible modification of the atmospheric electric circuit which may impact powerline and pipeline operations. The severity of these impacts is much more difficult to determine with a high degree of certainty without in-depth scaling up to SPS proportions. Indeed, it can be said that we have uncovered a higher degree of present ignorance than present knowledge insofar as the scaling of impacts up to the SPS level is concerned. Of those cases that we were able to consider within limits of present knowledge, it is probably fair to say that the impacts are of sufficient concern to induce consideration of design and mitigation strategies, but are probably not so severe as to put a stop to the project. We remind the reader, however, that these are present impressions on some specific issues and are subject to future rejection when (and if) new results are obtained. The reader is referred to the "CONTENTS" for a summary of the organization of this report. For the reader not well-versed in the terminology of the magnetospheric environment, we have included a brief discussion of the basic properties of the magnetosphere in the APPENDIX. 3
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