The Star Wars Sweepstakes

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Besides objecting to Star Wars on political and strategic grounds, many university scientists maintain that the whole idea is technically infeasible. One report says that the computers needed to manage a missile defense, for example, would have to be up to a million times as powerful as current machines. A program to run the Star Wars computers would be so complex that no human could comprehend it, and only other computers could write it. Furthermore, say SDI opponents, the computer system might be full of bugs because it could not be tested until an actual nuclear attack was under way.

Star Wars supporters point out that only a few decades ago, some scientists were skeptical about the possibility of creating nuclear weapons or reaching the moon. SDI advocates contend that much of the opposition is more a knee- jerk political reaction than a genuine scientific critique. Indeed, some of the attacks on Star Wars come from scientists whose work has nothing to do with space technology. Contends James Ionson, the astrophysicist who heads SDIO's Innovative Science and Technology Office: "The only ones who complain about money being thrown around are those who are not in the way of the money."

Some opponents contend that SDI will hurt the civilian economy and the U.S. position in world trade. Says Hans Bethe, a Cornell physicist and Nobel laureate: "The best engineers will go into SDI because the technical problems are fascinating. Meanwhile, we can't make an auto to compete with the $ Japanese. It's less exciting to design a better auto."

In response, advocates say that SDI research, like the space program, will have spin-offs that benefit private industry. The knowledge gained through Apollo flights helped scientists develop a multitude of products, from miniature computer chips to the cordless Dustbuster vacuum cleaner. Says John Rittenhouse, executive vice president of the aerospace and defense division at RCA: "We're not banking on SDI reaching production. We're banking on the fallout to commercial and consumer areas for the payoff." Technology spawned by SDI could conceivably be used to build better communications equipment, air-traffic-control systems or industrial robots. High-speed computers developed for SDI could have thousands of practical uses.

While scientists and politicians debate the merits of SDI, companies are plunging fearlessly ahead with their Star Wars research. Says Gaynor Kelley, president of Perkin-Elmer, a high-tech firm based in Norwalk, Conn.: "We see SDI as a chance to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in business over the next five to ten years." Such payoffs are far from a sure thing, but it is a business opportunity too great to ignore.

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