ment funded research and development which have contributed to the industry (current cost estimates for the SPS include most R and D). A further look at railroads also shows that as the technology was improved and implemented, the railroad’s position vis-a-vis its competitors became more favorable, until eventually it was the superior technology (1,2). The technology for turnpikes, another transportation alternative, and canals was well developed when railroads were first introduced, and the decrease in costs for these two alternatives due to innovation could only be marginal. Analogously, nuclear and coal technology have been in existence for years, and their costs do not promise to be reduced significantly by technological breakthroughs. As for SPS, on the other hand, there are many areas in which improvements will make the concept much more cost- effective: space transportation, ground rectenna, solar cell efficiency, etc. The photoklystron concept (5), if successful, could go a long way in reducing costs. Also, because of the component design of the SPS, it stands to reap economies of mass production. So one sees that the SPS might be more advantageous than conventional energy sources, just as the railroad achieved dominance over its competitors. Leaving economics behind, we come to the most interesting analogy between the modem SPS and the 19th century railroads, and that is their potential for opening up frontiers for settlement. A certain amount of constructive imagination coupled with a few reasonable assumptions will make this analogy a valid one. Assume the following conditions on planet Earth in the early 21st century. The need for natural resources by developing countries and their numerical superiority in world politics has placed the United States at a disadvantage in acquiring means necessary to sustain its economic health. Over the whole planet, the quality of life is falling due to unmanageable demands on the biosphere. Demands similar in nature to these existed on the Eastern seaboard in the mid-nineteenth century. The way West was the way out, and the railroads provided for individuals and collected interests not only access to the West, but also a means of marketing that portion of the natural wealth they could make their own (3). The railroads were a component of a technological fix for essentially social problems — overcrowding, competing uses of limited resources, and unemployment. Similarly, the SPS could contribute to the solution of tomorrow’s social problems. The following O’Neillian scenario does not seem fantastic. A small maintenance colony for an SPS could be justified by its contribution to the terrestrial economy. The requirements of sixty such colonies could make necessary three or four colonies at LEO (Low Earth Orbit) whose purpose would be to facilitate the distribution of supplies to the other sixty. The construction of so many SPS’s will have long ago required a lunar mining and material processing base. There are also two other SPS’s under construction, and 500 men and women are at each. The lunar base personnel numbers forty, each SPS colony has ten, and the supply colonies have five each. In addition, there are thirty researchers in three space labs, and ten more on a lunar base. These researchers are working on further ways that space technology can improve conditions back home. The total quasi-permanent population in space is 1700 persons. There may be as many as fifty more individuals in space on a temporary basis. For these 1750 people, food requirements alone necessitate the transport of 17,500 pounds of food each day. The cost of supplying this food is prohibitive, and so an agricultural colony is established. More people are put in space, and they have more requirements, and so on, until the frontier of near-earth space is settled. The SPS could provide the economic justification for initiating the opening up of this high frontier, just as the railroads exponentially multiplied the rate of settlement of the West.
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