orbit with their heavy launch vehicles. Might not the tens of billions of yen, marks, pounds, and francs contributed to a multi-national space program serve as an arms negotiation “sweetener,” an incentive for the Kremlin leadership to divert their military/aerospace capacity to more profitable ventures than the SS-20? The prospect of hundreds of large Russian missies lifting off — with international cargo instead of nuclear warheads — would have mass public appeal on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Consider the alternative arms control proposals on the table today. Any truly successful nuclear freeze would necessarily risk the atrophy of vital defense industries, while a treaty to divert arms spending into a full-scale SPS program would actually enhance military/aerospace production capabilities — should either side be foolish enough to fling down the gauntlet again. Perhaps it would be overly optimistic to predict that the heads of state — sitting as the board of directors of an international SPS program — would be able to resolve global differences over brandy and cigars. Perhaps fears about verification and technology pilfering will never allow such a treaty to be concluded. But a multilateral diversion of military spending into a program which would pay dividends to the next hundred generations would nonetheless be a “giant step for mankind,” worth taking a few risks to achieve. THE “PROTOTYPE” PETITION It is not coincidental that all five of the hypothetical texts discussed above contain the word “prototype.” The inclusion of that term narrows the proposition, advocating a mere experiment, not a headlong commitment to full-scale development. By thus delimiting the proposal, the text would address concerns about the poorly understood environmental impact of SPS — without cluttering the language with caveats. At the same time, “prototype petition" would be short enough to fit into a headline and cryptic enough to elicit the query: “ prototype what!” Just getting the public to ask that question would be a major educational accomplishment. The best minds in the world should be recruited to write an answer, enumerating the grand possibilities of space industrialization. At the top of the list — the most important “prototype” — should be SPS. Joseph D. Schleimer 5512 North 45th Street Tacoma, Washington 98407, USA
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