THE INDUSTRIAL INTEGRATION OF EARTH AND SPACE (PT. 1 OF 2) • THE ECONOMIC FUNCTION OF SPACE INDUSTRIALIZATION IS TO GENERATE JOBS ON EARTH, NOT IN SPACE ● SPACE INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT GENERATE MORE JOBS THAN SPACE SCIENTIFIC MISSIONS (WHICH HAVE DIFFERENT MERITS) • SPACE INDUSTRIALIZATION IS LABOR-INTENSIVE AND DERIVATIVE-JOB-GENERATING APPLICATION OF SPACE TECHNOLOGY ● SPACE INDUSTRIALIZATION CAN GENERATE PRODUCTIVITY ECONOMICALLY AND, THEREBY, HELP STEM THE LOSS OF JOBS THROUGH INCREASING AUTOMATION REQUIRED TO KEEP MANY TERRESTRIAL INDUSTRIES ECONOMICALLY COMPETITIVE ● BY ITS ACCESS TO NEW ENERGY SUPPLIES, SPACE INDUSTRIALIZATION OFFERS A PARTICULARLY LARGE POTENTIAL FOR GENERATING DERIVATIVE JOBS ● LOW-COST ENERGY SUPPLY IN SPACE IS ONE OF THE PREREQUISITES FOR ECONOMICALLY COMPETITIVE MANUFACTURING IN NEAR-EARTH ORBITS (NEXT TO LOW-COST TRANSPORTATION BETWEEN EARTH AND SPACE) AMPLE LOW-COST ENERGY SUPPLY IS A KEY ASSET FOR LOW-COST TRANSPORTATION FROM NEAR-EARTH ORBITS TO MORE DISTANT ORBITS • SPACE LIGHT IS THE MOST VERSATILE ENERGY SOURCE (NEXT TO THE SUN) WITH THE GREATEST SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT POTENTIAL AMONG THE LARGE SPACE ENERGY SYSTEMS • LARGE AMOUNTS OF FUEL CAN BE SAVED BY INFORMATION TRANSMISSION SATELLITES IN CONJUNCTION WITH FIBER OPTICAL GROUND COMMUNICATION, MAKING IT POSSIBLE TO REPLACE AUTOMOBILE COMMUTING BY TELECOMMUTING; AND BY LASERPOWERING AIRLINERS IN LEVEL FLIGHT AT HIGH ALTITUDES CONTROLLED FUSION POWER IS MORE READILY REALIZABLE IN THE VACUUM OF SPACE THAN IN THE HIGH-PRESSURE ATMOSPHERE AT THE EARTH'S SURFACE: CONTROLLED FUSION IS THE KEY TO SUSTAINED LARGE INDUSTRIES IN ORBITS, ON THE MOON AND BEYOND, ON AN ECONOMICALLY VIABLE BASIS SG1077-20 Image maps Experimental Landsat image maps and mosaics produced by the U.S. Geological Survey Topographic Division have demonstrated the usefulness of satellite pictorial presentations for large area resource inventory. Examples include States (Arizona, Florida, New Jersey, and Georgia) and regions (central Chile and Argentina and parts of Antarctica). National mosaics have been completed in the United States, Canada, Mexico, France, Spain, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia. Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil and a number of other South American countries are now making color image maps of In many parts of the less-developed countries, their national territories. Landsat data provide the only and most accurate base maps currently available. Such maps are being produced mainly at scales of 1:1,000,000, but also at scales of 1:5,000,000, 1:2,500,000, 1:500,000, and 1:250,000 for some areas. Maps at these scales are nearly orthographic and are produced at a fraction of the cost of planimetric maps from conventional aerial photography. Color image maps provide an overview from which forests and forest cutting, land use, surface water, snow distribution, agricultural development, slash and burn development, strip mining, and other resource categories can be readily inventoried on a national, regional, State, or local basis. This will soon be demonstrated in Central America where a 5-nation effort, funded by the Inter American Development Bank, is now underway to inventory natural resources on a regional, as well as a national, basis. Marine oil spills and seeps The enormous increases in transport of crude oil by tankers and the development of numerous offshore oil and gas fields worldwide in recent years pose potentially serious environmental problems. These problems were exemplified by the Argo Merchant disaster off the New England Coast in December 1976 and by the collision of two U.S.-owned supertankers-the Venoil and Venpet--off the coast of South Africa a year later, as well as by the blowout of a U.S.-operated petroleum production platform in the Ekofisk field of the North Sea in April 1977. Experimental work being conducted by the EROS Program in collaboration with the Missions Utilization Office of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center has demonstrated that oil slicks resulting from accidents in offshore fields or to tankers can be detected and delineated on Landsat data (Deutsch, Strong, and Estes, 1977). Even a natural oil seep at Santa Barbara was detected by Landsat. This capability shows that Landsat may constitute an additional source of data for worldwide environmental monitoring of oil slicks. The success of an experimental digital processing technique in depicting the Santa Barbara seep and its surface verification demonstrates that new and archival Landsat data are a possible source of relevant information for coastal zone oil exploration. In a related experiment currently underway, Landsat data covering an area of oil and gas production in the North Sea off the coast of England are being processed in an attempt to detect ships and production platforms. |