There is a higher level decision context. Very large organizations, such as banks operating on the world level, may recognize the need for headquarters operations in space which are manned continually (in comfort) by personnel on asynchronous workshifts. This should allow the organization to avoid some of the surprises on a world level which do sometimes strike even multinational organizations and provide more knowledgeable people during emergencies. These surprises might be changes in currency valuations, a sudden political uprising in a key region, an accident or natural disaster, a strike or a sudden business shift by a competitor. Quick response to any of these on a steady basis might save on expenses or increase cash flow by a few percent. It is reasonable to expect large financial organizations to reach 1 E+12 $/year cash flows by the 21st century. Investment in new facilities or systems should pay back in three years or so. Thus, if such a large group wished it could afford to spend 10 B$ on such a ne ver-sleep management center. That price might be reasonable if a space materials industry existed. We note for reference the existence of the “Culpepper Switch.” Culpepper, Virginia is the location of the Federal Reserve Communications and Records Center. All transactions between the Federal Reserve districts must go through the Culpepper Switch for recording and redistribution. The average transaction is 15 E6 dollars. The 1980 cash flow through Culpepper was approximately 7 El3 dollars (89). Internationally constructed and operated habitats for scientific research have been suggested (90). A world investment in a polar orbit facility to show high level employees of all nations that the world is finite and viewable in one day might be justified by increased mutual awareness between countries. Such posts could serve as neutral, high-status, worldwide “high ground.” Table 3 shows that by virtue of the 6 billion people inhabiting it, Earth resembles a spaceship on the per capita level. Of course the analogy is not good. Earth is huge and the variables are generally outside control of even motivated national and international groups. In some respects the efforts of the environmental movements and agencies resemble alchemy rather than science because of the scales of Earth's environment. It should be realized that habitats in space might be the cheapest way to learn quickly how to create (manufacture) healthy and economical habitats within which people can prosper. The early habitats would provide far more of a quantitative environment than does the biosphere of Earth. The early habitats could be viewed as “test tubes” within which to develop true environmental sciences. Is it possible to find a “peaceful” goal for expansion into space which would gain the enthusiastic attention and involvement of the people of the world? There is an intriguing possibility. Note in Fig. 7 that a growing space industry could support the construction of kilometer diameter habitats by the turn of the century such as suggested by O'Neil (23b — see cover). Such habitats would have a structural mass the order of 50,000 tons (excluding cosmic radiation shielding). They could be rotated and pressurized to provide Earth normal conditions along the inside periphery of a spherical volume. Pseudo-gravity would decrease to zero as one approached the spin axis of the sphere. Imagine that the start of the second century of the modern Olympics were to be held in several such habitats constructed in low Earth orbit. This would be the Olympiad starting in the year 1996 and culminating in the year 2000 Olympic games. Following completion of the games the facilities would become available as permanent centers for world peace and mankind's gateway to the solar system and beyond. The complex would be visible to virtually all the people of the world. Cis-lunar industrialization and the large volume of human traffic (participants, officials and tourists) to the complex would guarantee the opportunity to create
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