ore processing facilities, may have deleterious effects on land and water quality, and may therefore suffer difficulties in their establishment because of resulting legal and public barriers. Overall, however, it does not appear that land use problems will be of major significance to any of the candidate satellite energy systems. b. Public Safety The primary risks to the public from any of the systems appear to derive from misdirection of a satellite's microwave beam, or because of catastrophic attitude control or stationkeeping failures (Ref. All). However, fail-safe redundant systems should be able to provide for switching off transmission until possible on-orbit repairs can be completed. All systems present minor threats to developed areas during launch from possible aborts, but twenty years of successful range safety exper- inece appears to obviate any need for general concern in this regard. However, an exception may obtain with the nuclear power satellite system. The risks entailed in aborted launches of nuclear materials need to be carefully investigated. Some relevant information may be available on this question from previous military and NASA studies of other systems. c. Radio Frequency Interference Studies are required of the interference potential of the satellite microwave beam on terrestrial, airborne and spaceborne communications, navigation and radar systems, as well as on lower altitude satellite systems (Ref. All). Preliminary investigations have indicated that substantial interference with defense and police radars in the 3100 to 3700 MHz range might occur, for example (Ref. A3). In addition, interference with radio astronomy equipment seems likely (Ref. A4), and radio astronomy users should be major participants in any RFI investigations. 2. Environmental Pollution Air and water pollution caused by a satellite system's material extraction and manufacturing processes must be assessed in comparison to alternative energy systems. Of more unique significance, the flight operations of the system can produce excessive noise in the neighborhood of
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