sophistication. As a general theme, the world wide character of space systems will make them available to any country at a minimal cost, perhaps on an “as-needed” or an “as-used” rental basis, enormously reducing the expenditures of capital and people needed to carry out the same functions from the ground. We have already mentioned briefly the possibility of constructing large Solar Power Satellites in geosynchronous Earth orbit to harness the abundant solar energy available in space full-time for delivery to Earth. While these were originally conceived as a source of electrical power on the ground in industrialized regions of the Earth, they offer great promise for many rural areas of developing countries as well, where the primary need for energy is for fuels suitable for cooking, heating of homes, and small labor-intensive industries. Cooking needs alone amount to the equivalent of 1 ton of firewood per person per year. In this context, electricity produced at receiving stations for Solar Power Satellites could be distributed to ten or twelve chemical synthesis plants at distances to 50-100 km from each receiving station. That electricity could then be used to produce methanol from the carbon dioxide in air and from water in large quantities. Methanol is a liquid fuel which can be burned in an environmentally very safe manner, using existing low-technology stoves, ovens, and furnaces. Initially, the synthetic fuels could be distributed by labor-intensive methods or by pipelines built gradually by labor-intensive methods to supply villages with fuels at prices considerably lower per unit of energy than current prices for presently available fuels (kerosene, firewood, or dried cow dung). Such a program could provide enormous numbers of jobs for unskilled workers, especially during the construction phases, in regions of chronic rural unemployment. The standard of living of rural families would be raised directly by reductions in the heavy burden of fuel costs. One Solar Power Satellite used in this manner should provide sufficient liquid fuel to provide for the cooking and heating needs for populations of 5 to 15 million people, depending on the climate. It is possible that in some cases the receiving stations for Solar Power Satellites may have to be constructed as large floating platforms just offshore. In the conversion of microwave power into electrical power, a small amount of heat will be generated. With appropriate designs, that heat could be used to warm the surface layers of ocean water to encourage growth of marine plants and animals in the immediate vicinity of the floating platforms, providing the basis for large scale mariculture operations. Previous studies of mariculture have found the costs of floating platforms to be prohibitive; in this case, however, since the floating platforms would be economically justifiable because of the energy received from space, the additional costs for establishing a large mariculture operation providing major new sources of edible proteins would be very much smaller. As the developed countries replace electrical generating plants which burn fossil fuels with Solar Power Satellites, their demand for petroleum should shrink, reducing the costs of traditional energy sources required for transportation and food production in the developing countries. The costs of petroleum by-products (including fertilizers, pesticides, plastics, industrial solvents, and pharmaceutical products, to name a few) should also decline. Meanwhile, as the absolute costs of primary energy sources decline, industrial countries will be able to utilize less concentrated sources of terrestrial minerals as inputs to industrial processes, reducing competition for limited reserves of more concentrated scarce minerals. Countries having advanced space capabilities will find tremendous economic incentives to create the new technologies permitting them to use whatever material resources are available in space for the construction of machinery and habitats in
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