A DIFFERENT RACE Raymond S. Leonard, P.E. - Consulting Engineer 1232 Date Street, Montara, California The Satellite Power System Program could be the vehicle used for solving three of our nation's major problems: energy, strategic defense, and the lack of a national purpose and challenge. In the energy sector the problem is to discover how this nation can obtain electric power, energy for space and processing heating, and the transportation fuels it needs at a reasonable price, from a secure source, and by methods which minimize environmental problems such as waste disposal, thermal pollution, air pollution, and disruption of terrain. In the strategic defense sector the problem is not what or how many new offensive strategic weapon systems to deploy but rather to determine and deploy the best systems to economically provide deterrence or defense against a nuclear attack economically for a consumer oriented society that is seeking to give to itself more and more social services. No nation, including the United States, can remain strong and disciplined as a people without some sense of purpose. The question is to determine the new sense of purpose that can rally our people. For approximately the same amount of money that this nation is planning to spend on deploying the MX missile, we can build a space industrial facility which will produce power plants, allow for cheap communications systems, and provide nationwide defense against ballistic missile attack. Through the use of hydrogen produced from SPS electricity we can also supply all the fuel we may ever need for transportation purposes. The Different Race Concept: Instead of trying to compete with the Russians or any other adversary on the basis of who can produce the most missiles or tanks, we need to make the effort to change the contest to one which emphasizes the best qualities of the United States: respect for the individual, free enterprise in a relatively free market, and surpluses from a productive society allowed us to successfully aid those less fortunate without robbing the wage earner. This policy was successful during the late 60s and early 70s (the era of Apollo); the U.S. was preeminent in space and had a vigorous economy. During that time there was some effort on the part of the Soviets to foster detente. When our loss of commitment was realized detente collapsed. An aggressive space program whose goal is energy independence for not only the United States but also the world, develops capital facilities and has both hard military applications in an indirect sense, and promotes peace by stimulating a desire on the part of our adversaries to work with us in order to gain access to the technology and benefits of such a program. Large new strategic weapons systems cannot do both of the tasks. Technical Feasibility: It is technically feasible to build a space industrial complex and satellite power systems, as well as introduce a hydrogen fuel economy with manned early warning space stations and a laser antiballistic missile defense system. A brief review of the technical literature will confirm this statement.
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