0191 -9067/81/010127-07$02.00/0 Copyright ' 1981 SUN SAT Energy Council THIRD WORLD VIEWS ON SOLAR POWER SATELLITE APPLICATIONS RASHMI MAYUR Futurology Commission 181 Rewa, Haji Ali Bombay 400 026, India INTRODUCTION As mankind faces innumerable problems—explosive population growth, nuclear warfare, hunger, environmental degradation, energy shortages—there are very few alternatives which offer hope for survival as the alternative of going beyond the frontiers of the earth and exploring answers far into space. For many millenia, space was the domain of mythologies, fictions, and pure imaginary creations in every society. Even today for most of the people in Africa, Asia and, South America, with many mundane problems of existence, space remains as remote and incomprehensible as a black hole. Yet, as in the past, it is in the adventurous spirit of man and his search for new frontiers that solutions to some of the critical illnesses plaguing mankind will be found. Since the dawn of the scientific and technological era man’s eyes have turned to the frontiers beyond the finite earth. In the twentieth century there have been few adventures as thrilling, as challenging, and as fruitful as the adventures of space. With the landing of man on the Moon in July 1969, many fictions concerning man’s plight due to his confinement on earth evaporated and the vast resources of space, lying idle, have become potentials of development. Never before was man’s search for new resources more acute and urgent as now. Never before have so many millions of people lived in so much privation and misery as they do now, especially in the countries of the Third World. Of the more than 4.5 billion people, 2 billion live in perpetual shortages and grinding poverty, even basic benefits of elementary technology have not reached them. In recent years, it has been observed that despite the massive technological developments, gaps between the highly industrialized countries of the North and the developing countries of the South has been widening. It is in this context of unequal developments in the world with invariably depleting resources and consistently increasing demand due to higher consumption and expanding population that potentials of space science and technologies must be considered. More importantly, human ingenuity must be directed towards finding expedient methods of growth which would help developing societies in the Third World. It is well recognized that during the last 15 years most of these countries have bene- fitted significantly from better weather forecasting, communication systems, and resource surveys, made possible by space technologies. But no problem confronting developing countries threatens their development and eventual survival more seriously than the problem of energy, on which their progress depends. In reality these countries do not have energy crises, but they have energy catastrophies. Except for a
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