be categorized as spinoff, at least in the conventional sense. An ambitious SPS program would provide jobs for many people with skills not presently in high demand. The new tasks and their complications would create new engineering disciplines — space construction, microwave engineering, solar cell technology. The emphasis on petrochemical engineering and nuclear engineering would be replaced by a new balance. Additions to course curricula would be made. The movement of other industries into space will come about as people with new ideas on the practical utilization of space move into these industries from educational institutions. What reasons, according to the analogy, do we have to believe this will be so? During the post-Civil War years, the engineering curricula throughout the nation was strongly influenced by the railroads. The requirements of railroad engineering caused schools to include in their civil engineering curriculum courses like road engineering, topographical drawing; constructions; mechanics of solids and stone cutting. The modified curricula brought about new approaches in other fields when displaced railroad engineers brought their training to bear on new problems. I have tried to draw analogies between the railroads and the Solar Power Satellites across a broad spectrum of effects and causes. That the two social inventions have secondary consequences not intended by their creators should be obvious. We now have the inheritance of experience from railroads and other technological innovations to aid us in evaluating the SPS. Using historical analogies, we can hypothesize about the future implications of this invention, and we can direct research to investigate these hypotheses further. Consequently, historical analogy is a useful tool to mankind, and therefore, the analogy between the railroads and the SPS is a useful one. REFERENCES 1. T.P. Hughes, A technological frontier, in The Railroad and The Space Program, M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, 1965. 2. B. Mazlish, Historical analogy, in The Railroad and The Space Program, M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, 1965. 3. H. V. Poor, Influence of the railroads of the United States in the creation of the commerce and wealth, 1869, University Microfilms, Ann Arbor MI, 1967. 4. R.W. Fogel, Railroads and American Economic Growth, John Hopkins Press, Boston, 1964. 5. J.W. Freeman, S. Simons, W.B. Colson, F.R. Brotzen and J. Hester, The photoklystron, Space Solar Power Review, 1 (1), 1980. 6. S.C. Gilfillan, The Sociology of Invention, Follet, Chicago, 1935. 7. L.H. Haney, A Congressional History of Railways in The United States, A.M. Kelley, New York, 1968.
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