Dual use SPS

>
> It's an interesting proposal, but you should know that the SSI
charter
> forbids the study of weapon systems.
>

Any system capable of target acquisition, tracking, and destruction
of space debris will contain all the essential components of a cruise
phase ABM system. This cannot be helped, and it seems to me any
large space structure whether space colony or SPS will need such a
system. You can choose not to call it a weapon, but one man's tool
is another man's weapon. To choose not to study something because it
could be missused would stop most technology development. Better to
work against the missuse of technolgy than the forbidding of it.
Intentions matter. Do you not study how to defend against large
asteroids hitting the Earth because the same technology might be used
to direct asteroids towards the Earth?

Perhaps the charter should be revisited. If the goal of a technology
is defense against weapons (or things) of mass destruction, perhaps
its study should be permitted.

Gary Fisher