funded towards increasing commercialization. Operation costs could be privatized first, and launch and manufacturing costs next. While several of the explored markets are encouraging, it is important to acknowledge that future space solar power businesses entail major financial risks: high production costs, unproven technologies, uncertainties that may cause project delays and large cost overruns, unassured public support and binding, and component development delays. Clearly, creating and maintaining financial investors' confidence should be seriously addressed and monitored throughout program development. Major constraints for technology tradeoffs will arise from environmental and safety considerations. We enumerate the major concerns: • Atmospheric effects due to energy dissipation (such as heating and scattering), mainly for 2.45 GHz microwaves, as 35 GHz microwaves produce much less ionospheric heating. • Limitation of power densities of 2.45 GHz microwaves and visible lasers to prevent biological injuries. Further investigation is needed for 35 GHz microwaves. • Impact of large number of launches: pollution, perturbations on the ionosphere and magnetosphere resulting in communication interference, among others. • Potential health impact of extended exposure to space or lunar environment. Needs for new Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) and Intra-Vehicular Activity (IVA) life-support structures and new EVA suit designs. • Rectenna construction and operation: social and environmental issues. Clearly, basic research experiments will have to be designed and implemented in order to give a satisfactory answer to some of these concerns. Finally, the importance of legal, political and regulatory issues for space solar power development must not be underestimated. In particular, the space solar power program, being international in character, benefits from the recent major changes in the international political regime. The renewed focus on economic rather than military issues offers more opportunities for meaningful international cooperation. Nevertheless, especially at the initial stages of the program, national interests should be carefully taken into consideration. Also, due to concerns of international industrial competitiveness, technology transfer remains a significant issue. In order to maximize the practical chances of success of the program, technology transfer will be minimized to a “need to know” basis, and technical interfaces across different participating countries will be kept as simple as possible. The proposed space solar power organization intends to be an international, flexible entity which can evolve as the program progresses, and it is intended to concentrate on achieving commercial rather than political objectives. Full voting representation for all contributing governments and private entities would be achieved at a future Assembly of Signatories , that would set general policy. This policy would be implemented, and the appropriate executive body appointed, through a Board of Governors, where representation would be proportional to members' contribution. Legal implications of the implementation of space solar power systems will include: the compatibility between the principle of non appropriation of outer space and the installation of lunar bases to manufacture the satellites, the utilization of the Moon's resources, the use of power beams, the occupation of geostationary orbit slots, and the need to guarantee that the power systems will be used solely for peaceful purposes. As to the problem of orbit and frequency allocation, we consider that the International Telecommunications' Union (ITU) has competence in this matter. One point of interest is that allocation of 35 GHz may be easier than for 2.45 GHz, due to the proliferation of mobile phone users at frequencies in the vicinity of the latter. Our appreciation is that a high-level political decision will be necessary for system operation due to the fact that there exists a keen competition with other services such as telecommunications for both frequency and orbit allocation problems. Finally, since the setup of the system implies a number of risks (collision, environmental damages, etc.) and it remains very difficult to include some categories of damages in the existing rules of international law relating to responsibility, there is a clear need for the elaboration of new international space legislation and, in particular, an agreement on exposure standards for microwave and laser beams.
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