Space industrialization opportunities

The current status of efforts to develop commercial space projects is surveyed, with a focus on US programs, in reviews and reports presented at the Second Symposium on Space Industrialization held in Huntsville in February 1984. Areas explored include policy, legal, and economic aspects; communications; materials processing; earth-resources observation; and the role of space carriers and a space station. Also included in the volume are 132 brief descriptions of the NASA Microgravity Science and Applications Program Tasks as of December 1984. These tasks cover the fields electronics materials; solidification of metals, alloys, and composites; fields and transport phenomena; biotechnology; glass and ceramics; combustion science; and experimental technology.