Materials Development Most large scale Space Solar Power Program concepts involve masses much larger than could reasonably be launched from Earth. Thus the possibility of materials fabrication on the moon, from asteroids or in orbit must be considered a key enabling technology for space power. This is a field of interest to many scientists, and often has important spin-offs for terrestrial material production. A good example of this type of spin-off is that of concrete manufactured from lunar regolith. [Lin, 1985] The new techniques invented for this task, when applied to terrestrial concrete, yield a higher quality product. [Lin, 1992] With the increase in scale of ISPO it could work to encourage research into non-terrestrial materials and possibly initiate this research itself. Power Technologies The potential for development of power transmission, conversion and retrieval technologies is huge, and some people working in this field would be enthusiastic about working on space power. Research is needed on the development of, for example, specialized high power, low mass, high efficiency laser systems, currently a very active area of research. If funding were made available with an Solar Space Power Program specification there would be many interested researchers. Other areas like microwave generators and transmitters, receiving technologies and pointing techniques will continue to be of interest. Some of the power technologies necessary for space power will be specific to the project, and so would have to be funded by ISPO. Other areas, however, could be developed in cooperation with organizations interested in Earth-bound uses. ISPO could lobby grant bodies to make power research a priority. Budgets - Overall Picture Scientific budgets are always strained to the limits. Unless ISPO can procure funding independent of the general science budgets, it is important to be sure that there is a real science component in any project that is funded from these sources. As can be seen from the strong opposition from many scientists to the Space Station program, failure to do this can make relations with the scientific community difficult. This is where the committee must work to prove the merits of power beaming and associated scientific experiments. The alternative strategy is to ensure that space power funds are clearly differentiated from funds allocated to science. This, however, will be extremely difficult in the initial non-commercial stages of the plan. Budgets - Others Working on Alternative Energy There are many forms of alternative energy that are much more technologically mature than space power. If government money is channeled to ISPO they are likely to make lots of noise and point to their own not insubstantial achievements. The committee must set out to communicate directly with these groups and get their input at the earliest possible stage. ISPO must make it clear that its goals for space power are realistic, and dissociate itself from implausible ideas for space power utilitization. Proving scientific usefulness at each experimental stage is important here to avoid alternative energy scientists giving ISPO, and space power in general, a bad name in the scientific community. Health of Space Workers If it is proposed to have people constructing large structures in space, it is vital that medical researchers are assisted in carrying out experiments as to the safety of these workers at the earliest possible stage. Before the atomic bomb tests in the forties, this was not considered and many people at those initial test firings have since died of cancer. Extremely bad publicity of this type must be avoided. Communications Technologies Non-military applications of very high accuracy pointing technologies are rare, and many experts in the field of laser and microwave guidance would happily move to the civilian sector if given the
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