Space Solar Power Review Vol 5 Num 1

Fig. 5. Histogram of the U.S. goods (excludes petroleum, agriculture). C + C + C (primarily cars, houses and industries in the industrial nations) and new energy sources. It is amusing to remember that even paper money is a form of C + C + C. Since its mass and energy values are small compared to the annual Demandite production, its major pressures are on skills (37). In Fig. 5 the lower cross-hatched boxes correspond to SICs (e.g., metals production and manipulation, aircraft jewelry, electronics, etc.) which might be made primarily from lunar derived materials and possibly manufactured to advantage in space using solar power. The clear boxes correspond to the remaining nonagricultural and non-petroleum SICs. They are less likely to contain major products or processes adaptable to space and non-terrestrial materials but should be considered. One can be certain that these SICs contain industries employing many thousands of skillful people who can be directed toward winning resources from the moon and building with the new engineering materials (Fig. 4). Intellectual cross-links between the large materials/manufacturing groups and the lunar/aerospace communities could be developed quickly. NASA is adept at creating new, very competent technical communities throughout American society. The Apollo program and the far smaller lunar science research community are examples. Such “connections building” programs must be very outward directed and have special emphasis on involving new independent people and groups. Several approaches are possible. The hard problem is in creating the context wherein smaller groups (smaller than national governments or government consortia) can “handle” projects which grow off Earth.

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