HIGH-ENERGY NEUTRINO ASTRONOMY - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

The nascent field of high energy neutrino astronomy seems to be near t o blossoming in the next few years, after decades of speculation and p reliminary experimental work. The motivation for the endeavor, anticip ated types of sources, consideration of energy regime for first attemp ts, scale size needed, and techniques are qualitatively reviewed. A su mmary of relevant current projects is presented with emphasis on the n ew initiatives with detectors of the 10,000 m2 class. It seems that by the end of the decade there may be a few such new generation instrume nts in operation, and that with luck the business of high energy neutr ino astrophysics will be underway by the turn of the century.