carrying the Shuttle external tank to orbit. He is optimistic about various uses of the Shuttle, the launching of the European Space Agency's Ariane rocket, and the development of Japanese vehicles. Work in India and elsewhere is very encouraging. He mentioned the catapult launch, magnetic separation of lunar soils, powdered metallurgy for fabricating parts from lunar soils, compact high g reaction engines and the lunar catapult mass driver using silicon controlled rectifier switches. He felt that there are military and national security links to space, that oxygen, the “gasoline of space,” would be as important in space as oil is now on Earth. Money from the Department of Energy is coming for electromagnetic separation. Professor O'Neill concluded by reaffirming long-term goals. He said that space can provide a rich life in energy and materials for Earth's human children with a realistic hope of reducing conflict, increasing diversity, and providing opportunities for wider, more interesting life. As a finale he showed three slides: one by a NASA artist of a room in a converted external shuttle tank used as a habitat in orbit. The second slide was a Bernal sphere, and the third the interior of Island No. 1 and the interior of the Bernal sphere. Professor O'Neill feels that the goals of the space program to open the high frontier will be met.
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