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MANKIND'S TECHNOLOGICAL TASKS FOR THE FUTURE

By Prof. Hermann Oberth

Member of the Alexander Order

The coming decades will be dramatic enough for humanity even without atomic wars or other military confrontations. Dangers such as overpopulation, destruction of the environment, a decreasing supply of raw materials, educational and intellectual deficiencies in a large part of the population, dangers such as these are gradually becoming apparent to the average European, American, and Asian and are forcing the governments to exercise foresight, to be responsible, and to deal with more problems than ever before.

A. The Space Reflector, Space Travel, Space Stations, and Wind-Driven Power Stations

In order to gain time against the greatest danger, namely overpopulation by people who are incapable of culture, it is urgent that we take in hand the following technological projects.

I have already discussed a few of these in my writings, Ways to Space Travel, The Space Reflector, and The Kite Power Station (a wind-driven power station at high altitudes).

1. With the aid of the space reflector we can:
   1. increase the amount of arable land on earth,
   2. improve the climate,
   3. illuminate large cities,
   4. keep the Arctic harbors free of ice,
   5. provide the earth with a source of energy which is not harmful to the environment and which can also be used to produce electricity,
   6. provide energy which can be used as microwave beams to propel rockets into space, etc.

2. In my book, Ways to Space Travel, I described as early as 1929 the rocket technology which is used today, the future design of an electrical spaceship for interplanetary travel, the smelting of lunar ore, and the lunar centrifuge necessary to get this material to the 60-degree liberation point of the system Earth-Sun and store it there. This material is to be used to build manned space stations, the space reflector, and other large construction projects. I suggested the construction of terrariums on the moon for people, as well as the building of space telescopes and the study and use of asteroids.

3. The wind-driven power station at high altitudes, which is not built on towers or poles but is carried by balloons up to 12,000 meters, could alleviate the earth's energy shortage considerably. Cheap electricity could be used to desalt sea water and propel traffic on the highways by means of electrically-powered tow cables, thus eliminating some environmental problems and saving oil.

Producing electricity by utilizing such natural sources as waves, tides, and the sun is what I consider to be our most urgent task in the coming years.

Many of the power stations driven by the waves at the mouth of the Amazon River would also cause the loam which is floating in the water to settle, and land can thus be reclaimed. The same thing could also be done at the mouths of other large rivers.

B. Water Utilization

Water is our most valuable raw material. It should be employed to better advantage than it has been up to now.

For instance, central Asia could be irrigated by closing off the northern part of the Caspian Sea with a dam and directing the waters of the Volga to central Asia. An additional possibility for irrigating central Asia could be achieved if the waters of the Danube, the Dniester, the Dnieper, and the Don Rivers were combined after damming off the northern part of the Black Sea. This water should then be directed by a canal into the Sea of Azov and then into the Caspian Sea by way of the Manych Depression. If this were done, lakes and forests would be created in central Asia which would improve the climate (mild winters and early spring) there as well as Europe.

Even Saudi Arabia and Iran could be irrigated, if the Persian Gulf were sealed off at the Strait of Hormuz and the water of the Shatt el Arab used. Of course, sea water from the Persian Gulf would also have to be drawn out and desalted.

Too much water from the Mississippi and the Nile still flows into the sea.

In Australia, too, water which flows into the ocean would be redirected inland by creating man-made valleys.

C. Water Reservoirs

The sheets of ice over the Antarctic could likewise be thickened in order to create a reservoir. A 200-kilometer-wide cooling strip could be built up around the land mass. In the glaciers, shafts might be drilled down to the earth's surface; in these shafts cooling liquid circulates which is cooled down from the top and then cools the earth and prevents the glacier from moving. In doing this care is to be taken that the coolant does not enter the ice mass or sea. The earth will not be driven off its axis or crack as a result of this; only the Platonic year will be a bit longer. Around the North Pole, too, an enclosure of 1000 to 2000 kilometers in diameter could be built. The walls should reach 4000 meters above sea level. Inside, the water will freeze all the way down to the earth's surface. Later the enclosure will be filled up to the brim with ice and snow. Through these efforts the sea level will drop several meters, and the land will reclaim what the sea once took from it.

All these measures would increase the salt content of the oceans, and they would have to be desalted to the point where they are today. Then, too, the plan of the "King of the Sahara," as de Lesseps, the son of the architect of the Suez Canal, called himself, could be realized. Already at the close of the previous century this man suggested redirecting sea water by means of a canal to the part of the Sahara which lies below sea level.

Additional reservoirs could be created by subterranean water reservoirs, which could be sealed up with deep-sea clay.

D. Reports of the Uranics

In one of his last communications, my medium wrote: "Even in technology we are more advanced than you are. We could teach you a great deal in this area, and you would be attentive pupils, but we do not want to make you stronger in an area where you are already strong enough. Your culture is comparable to a ship whose cargo has all been placed on one side and is keeling over. Technology is masculine wisdom; what you are lacking is feminine wisdom. The masculine mind holds sway over the principle of destruction; the feminine, over construction. One should only destroy where something better can be built instead. Furthermore, however, it is also God's will that you be permitted to solve your own problems, so that you will gain experience and become stronger in the struggle for survival and in your battle against the powers of evil. Most of this can only be learned through experience. You must also withstand personal misfortune and suffering and do your own discovering and inventing. We can only make suggestions as to where and how your strengths should best be used and what your goals should be instead of dissipating your energies in petty national jealousies and ideological battles. Dispense with nuclear power plants. You should continue atomic research, for God wants you to enjoy learning and discovering new things. But in addition build space stations at the 60-degree liberation points between the earth and the sun. Such research work belongs in space, not on a flourishing planet. The danger is greater than you think. You have the capability to make the earth uninhabitable for human beings. To us it would make no difference. We know of creatures who live in a climate like the one you are about to create on earth. We would resettle them on earth if you annihilate yourselves and your fellow creatures. But it would be a shame to lose you and waste the efforts which your God expended on you and His Creation. Disarm yourselves and guard against bellwethers who run into burning stalls out of fear; and do not be like the hare who, afraid of the beater, exposes himself to the hunter's gun!

Learn birth control! Whoever prevents his God from erasing strokes from the living picture which he has drawn, must blot them out himself and bear the blame for the damages if he makes a mistake. Beware of the great seducer: Nobody can speak as pleasingly and piously as he. He has often been mistaken for God and God for him. But El-Elion* is inexorable: He is a natural law!