4. Mutli-purpose platforms will occupy many important orbits, not only GEO. 5. On-orbit servicing capability will be maintained for all multi-purpose platforms. Because of their high value, downtime on these platforms will be extremely expensive. The balance between man and robotics for providing on-orbit servicing capability is very uncertain at this time. 6. Many activities in space will be internationally sponsored, and it is likely that large geosynchronous platforms will be considered multinational territory. 7. Many of the activities performed in space in the post-2000 period will be performed there because it is economic to do so independent of government funding. These activities will thus represent a significant transformation of space-based activities from the government to the private sector. 8. A fully reusable space transportation system and multi-purpose platforms will dramatically lower the cost of the space activities and thus promote increasing private sector investments in space. 9. System complexity will shift from the ground segment where it is presently to the space segment, enabling ground-based users to participate in the use of space-based communications and data collection with relatively low investment. However this does not infer that the majority of expenditures on a particular system will be on the space segment. To the contrary, the lowering of costs for ground-based users is likely to increase the number of ground-based users dramatically, thus maintaining the preponderance of expenditures on the ground segment. For example, if the worldwide market for personal communicators at $100 per communicator is 100 million units, a total expenditure on the ground segment of some $10 billion will ensue. This might be compared to an expenditure on the space segment in support of these communicators of, say, $5 billion. Of particular interest in the post-2000 time period are geosynchronous platforms. It has already been observed that geosynchronous orbit will be dominated by large platforms during this period. The seeds of this transformation have already been sown, and it is expected that during the late 80s and early 90s a number of U.S. domestic and Intelsat platforms in the 25 kilowatt class will be placed in geosynchronous orbit. During the period of the mid-90s to about the year 2010, the placement of some five to ten larger platforms in the 100 to 500 kW class is likely. Beyond the year 2010 one can look for the replacement of the earlier
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