Education The public learns at a rate similar to that of a child. A child cannot learn everything about a complex subject in just one lesson, he must be taught in measured doses, he must be taught gradually over time. In the case of the Space Solar Power Program, educating the public is extremely important. If the public is to accept and support the Program, then it must have an understanding of what it is, how it will work, and what it's benefits, and potential problems, may be. But if we are to educate the public about the Space Solar Power Program then we must start now. The public should be involved from the beginning of the project, by teaching it about the problems in the world energy supply, environment, the social contrast between “rich and poor” societies, and the alternative futures for our planet. We must also teach the public about possible solutions to these problems, with an emphasis on how the Program might fit into such solutions. Through such education, the public will be able to gain an awareness of how the Space Solar Power Program will benefit them directly. Later, as the first project milestones are reached, we must further educate the public about these achievements and about future milestones. In this way, the public will realize that the Space Solar Power Program is feasible, useful, and that it is worthwhile to spend money on it. In this phase, the public will be very important supporting the project by convincing financiers and governments to seriously undertake to realize all the project goals. At the final stages of it, the public will have a proper knowledge about most of the important aspects related with space solar power and about what is necessary to make it work. By that time, we hope that the public will fully understand and support the Space Solar Power Program. In educating about it, we have to deal with a huge group of people with differing backgrounds. Our audience will differ in education, social condition, and demographics (people living in America and Europe have different cultural position and possible concerns from people living in Africa or some Asiatic regions, for example). Since the Space Solar Power Program is intended to be useful — if not necessary — for all of them, we need to think about a suitable way to educate all these various groups. It is important to supply people with accurate and understandable information about the project. Our task should be to single out different groups within the public and address them with the proper information for their backgrounds by the proper means. This should be done in order to let them be able to judge our project in an appropriate way and possibly to support it as well. We can suggest, both for people who already have a good cultural background, and for those who are able to attend schools at any level, some sort of technical and scientific education. It will be provided in the usual school systems and among special interest groups. For people without appropriate background or for people who are unable to join any kind of scholastic system, the best education will be provided by our answering the questions which are commonly associated with the idea of a Space Solar Power Program. However the same questions are worthwhile being answered for the rest of the public, even those with higher education, because most of us will have the same basic concerns about it For these reasons we will detail some general concerns. For a more thorough scientific and technical preparation it would be useful to look at some of the references presented in this report. General Concerns In order to present the Space Solar Power Program to the general public it is useful to think about the possible concerns the public will have. The public will ask questions about very different aspects of the project and we should always be able to answer in a simple but at the same time appropriate manner. Some of the most likely concerns are related to the economic aspects of the project and to what extent the individual citizen will contribute and benefit. At a first glance the idea of solar power from space could seem crazy or at least another game for scientists and engineers to play with. Above all there seems to be more important things to think about in this moment: lack of fundamental condition of survival in many of the Third and Fourth World countries, people without work in many of the developed countries, and the high level of pollution all over die world, just to present some examples. Why should we think about a Space Solar Power Program now instead of after solving these problems? Let's deal with two fundamental reasons. By improving the energy supply in both developed and developing countries we will be better able to face most of the problems which are stressing humanity. At the same time we do not want to leave our children and grandchildren with the burden of a damaged world. We would like to leave to them the tools and the opportunities to live and grow, exploiting the potentialities of every country. A dignified standard of life for as many people as possible means less opportunities for wars
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTU5NjU0Mg==