Sunlight reflections from a solar power satellite on solar mirrors should not harm the eyes

The potential hazard imposed by the reflection of the Sun's image by the solar power satellite (SPS) was examined. In the worst case, where the transmitter is assumed to be a perfect mirror reflecting the Sun's image normal to the atmosphere, the total energy received by the eye would be 3.36 x 10 to the -7th power watts. The eye's optics would blur the 5.6 sec of art image of the transmitter over a disk approximately 6 minutes arc in diameter, reducing the maximum intensity at the retina by 99%. A given cone in the retina would receive even less energy due to the constant random microtremors and microsaccadic movements of the eye muscles which move the retina over an area some 8 minutes of arc in radius, even during steady fixation. Therefore, very conservative estimates show that the reflections from the transmitter could be viewed safety for at least 3.2 hours and that the entire SPS structure could be viewed for a minimum of 1 hour. The solares mirror is briefly considered and is shown to be safe to view for at least 2.4 minutes

The Problem of Relief in Developer-Initiated Exclusionary Zoning Litigation

The courts have neither confronted nor always recognized the difficult conceptual and practical problems which hinder a court\u27s ability to grant appropriate relief in a developer-initiated case. Any judicial attempt to formulate site-specific relief must first confront the question whether the courts have the power to grant such relief. If it is determined that the courts do have such power, it is still necessary for the courts to recognize that, in formulating site-specific relief, they must balance two competing social interests: the economic interests of the developer, who often is the only one who can effectively attack exclusionary zoning in a municipality, and the interests of the municipality in rational and planned community growth. The problem of relief in nonresident litigation will be examined briefly in order to provide a background for the discussion of the problem of relief in developerinitiated cases

Development of an electrostatic positioner for space material processing

This paper describes an electrostatic positioning instrument which was developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to enable experimenters to conduct containerless material science experiments in space. Samples that are to be studied are electrically charged and controlled by the electrostatic force produced by a set of properly arranged electrodes. Three different types of positioners are described, i.e., the dish type, the ring type, and the tetrahedral type. In all these systems, the positioning and the damping of the sample is accomplished by a feedback control system. The advantage of this electrostatic positioning method, in comparison to the other methods, such as acoustic and electromagnetic, lies in the fact that it can operate in a high vacuum and does not require the material to be electrically conductive as long as the material can carry a certain amount of charge