time of war. A recent fictional account suggests the vulnerability of supertankers at sea to total destruction, not only by military forces, but by very determined and technically able individuals. Obviously, certain safeguards should be implemented to reduce vulnerabilities in any vital system, whether it be the pipeline network, urban aqueducts, or the Satellite Power System. To demand total invulnerability for any of these systems, however, is unreasonable. In contrast to major alternative energy systems which could be developed for civilian use in the United States in the same time frame as the SPS, the SPS program as a whole is subject to a "strategic" vulnerability which does not affect those alternatives. That vulnerability is the possibility of a major spacefaring nation blockading space against any major initiative in space by other nations. Interdiction of the early stages of an SPS program may be possible today. Intercontinental ballistic missiles armed with conventional high-explosive warheads or shaped charges would be adequate for the task, given some additional guidance and homing equipment. Any such attacks, however, would be viewed as acts of war. 4.9 Summary The Satellite Power System, like any complex industrial system, is vulnerable to a wide variety of assaults by hostile groups or nations. Any element of the SPS, of course, can be destroyed by nuclear bursts. The most costly portions of the SPS are in space, and it is likely that the military forces of a small number of countries will be able to attack those facilities with sufficient force to inflict severe damage. The vulnerabilities of SPS elements accessible to ground-based terrorists or commandos are similar in kind and degree to those of alternative energy technologies or of present-day transportation and distribution infrastructures in the industrialized countries. The power satellites, the COTVs, and the photovoltaic power supplies of the LEO and GEO bases appear to be vulnerable (in the Reference Design system) to electromagnetic pulse effects from nuclear bursts in space at substantial distances. Such bursts, however, may result in damage to other spacecraft including those of the attacker, at comparable distances.
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