of participation of spacecraft systems designers in the studies. A long, narrow Engineering Technology Verification Platform (ETVP) was described. Dr. E. Vallerani of Aeritalia, Turin, presented a paper on “Manned Elements to Support the Establishment of Large Systems in Space,” a study which sought to bring Italy into the mainstream of space activities. Thomas C. Taylor of Taylor & Associates (USA) presented a paper coauthored with N. J. Witek of Martin-Marietta Aerospace which supplemented and extended a paper they had presented earlier in the week to the Space Economics and Benefits Symposium on “Global Benefits of the Space Enterprise Facility Using the External Tank.” This second paper was titled “The External Tank as a Large Space Structure Construction Base.” Both papers analyzed the costs of carrying the shuttle’s external liquid fuel tank into orbit with a small rear section added which could serve as a cargo compartment. This would more than double shuttle cargo space. It could also serve as a workshop. Taylor also described using the very large interior of the 300 ft long x 27'/2 ft diameter tank as a garage or hangar to repair satellites or build parts of space structures. Such a facility could probably rent for considerably less than the cost of bringing a satellite back to Earth for repair and relaunching. J. J. Neilon of NASA Kennedy Center presented a paper on “Space Shuttle Cargo Processing.” It was, in effect, the annual apology for why the Shuttle is still on the ground. It was the old story, except that the slide projector jammed, which was perhaps a good omen, for a projector failure at a Soviet presentation at Dubrovnik two years ago, and a gaff in an ESA film on Ariane at Munich last year presaged the highly successful Salyut program and the successful launching of Ariane. There were four papers on nuclear waste disposal in space in the Symposium on Space and Energy and three more in the session on Socio-Economic Benefits of Space Operations. None of these were directly related to SPS except insofar as they pointed toward increased industrial use of space and the increased need for reliable transport to orbit. Consensus indicated a parking orbit for toxic and nuclear wastes somewhere between LEO and GEO where the wastes might be recaptured for future use as technical and scientific advances might require. The first prize for a student presentation was won by Mary L. Bowden, MIT, for a paper describing a Low Mass Solar Power Satellite in which the solar cell blanket would be in the plane of geosynchronous orbit, the transmitter fixed rigidly to the Earth side end of the blanket, and the blanket held extended by gravity gradient forces. The blanket would be illuminated by a large moveable mirror above it to reflect the radiation from the sun. The concept would provide a lighter structure to support the photocells and eliminate the problem of carrying power through a rotating yoke to the transmitting antenna, perhaps more than compensating for the addition of the large reflecting mirror. The International Colloquium on the Law of Outer Space (this year was the 23rd) again provided ample discussion of legal problems involving SPS, including “Space Energy Satellites and International Space Cooperation” by H. Berger (USA), “An International Regime for Satellite Power Station Systems” by C. Q. Christol (USA) (who unfortunately was unable to attend the meeting), and a masterly overview of SPS legal problems by IISL President Dr. I. H. Ph. Diederiks-Verschoor of the Netherlands, which she generously credited in large degree to the International Symposium on SPS held in Toulouse, France, last June under CERT and SUNSAT cosponsorship. Many other papers, such as that of Y. Hamakawa of the University of Osaka on “A Very Wide Area Thin Film Solar Cell Fabricated by Molecular Beam Epitaxy in
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