1. Social Impacts The effects of the satellite systems' land use requirements, the implications to public safety of possible system catastrophies and the potential hazards to public communications, radar and navigation systems of the RFI of the microwave transmission are discussed in this section. a. Land Use The receiving and rectifying antenna (rectenna) facility of the satellite system is the major clearly identifiable land user in any 2 2 of the candidate systems. For a 5 GW system, a rectenna of 36 mi (100 km ) 2 2 and total site area of 100 mi (300 km ) are planned (Ref. All). Competing and joint uses of the land hsould be considered. With proper mesh shielding, much could be farmed or industrialized, for example (Ref. A2). Interfaces with utility transmission facilities are significant factors in site location (Ref. A4). Neighboring areas may also develop industrially due to the conveniently accessible power (Ref. All). Thus, related implications to air, water, living space, transportation and other factors of the quality of life in these areas need also to be considered in siting considerations. Little information is so far available on these matters. Suggestions have also been made to consider sea-based rectenna facilities (Ref. All). No information is available on the implications of this concept to the obviously increased difficulties in rectenna design and implementation, however. A second area of land use concern is that associated with the launch facility (Ref. All). The required size of the site is expected to be much smaller than that of the rectenna facility, although noise level requirements will militate against this to some extent. The availability of transportation, workers and living quarters and related services will affect and be affected by the site's location. The suitability of the KSC Shuttle launch facility for the energy satellite mission may need to be evaluated in terms of the special requirements of this mission and its large number of launches. Finally, the production of the system will involve major material extraction and manufacturing facilities. Some of these, e.g., mining and
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