oceanic routes, as a power supply to recover Amor and Apollo asteroids and, although not quantitatively evaluated, as a power supply for a high-energy, high-vacuum physics laboratory in space. It is conceivable that these uses, plus other uses such as power for space manufacturing, could provide sufficient demand for salvage use of an entire fleet of 60 5 GW SPS satellites. The relative timing of the salvage use of full-scale SPS satellites is indicated in Figure 5.1. The bulk of the salvageable full-scale satellites (20) will be used for the laser transportation system with three additional satellites used for asteroid capture and mining, one additional satellite used for providing power and materials for other space activities and two additional satellites used for high energy physics laboratories. The remaining 34 satellites are disposed of at a disposal cost of $100 million ($30 million present value at the initial operation date). The salvage value is taken at $1.3 billion for each full-scale satellite used in the laser transportation system with this figure based upon infinite horizon discounting. It should be noted, however, that if the satellite must be replaced periodically, the replacement satellite does not have to be disposed of but the replaced satellite must be disposed of instead. Thus replacement considerations do not alter the computed average satellite salvage value. The salvage value associated with asteroid capture and mining is taken to be $1.0 billion per satellite. The maximum possible salvage value associated with the use of the satellite as a source of space-based materials is on the order of $0.3 billion for the major metals (not including nonsalvageable items such as sapphire and GaAs). Assuming that one-third of the available major metals are actually salvaged, the salvage value is on the order of $0.1 billion. All of the above numbers are per satellite salvage values and disposal costs, and are referenced to the time of initial operation of each satellite. It. is desired next to combine all salvage uses and disposals to estimate the average salvage
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