The Practical Values of Space Exploration: Report of the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. / House of Representatives, Eighty-Sixth Congress, Second / Session

By United States. Congress. House. Committee on Science and Astronautics.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Practical Values of Space Exploration" (Report of the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. / House of Representatives, Eighty-Sixth Congress, Second / Session) by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Science and Astronautics.. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

• Language: English
• Publisher: DigiCat
• Release date: Sep 16, 2022
• ISBN: 8596547377221

Book preview

United States. Congress. House. Committee on Science and Astronautics.

The Practical Values of Space Exploration

Report of the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. / House of Representatives, Eighty-Sixth Congress, Second / Session

EAN 8596547377221

DigiCat, 2022

Contact: [e-mail]

Table of Contents

Introduction

I. The Unseen Values

SOME EXAMPLES OF THE UNEXPECTED

THE ULTIMATE VALUES

STEERING A MIDDLE ROAD

THE TIME FOR SPACE

II. National Security Values

THE MILITARY USES

OUR POSITION IN THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

SPACE AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR WAR

III. The Economic Values

U.S. EXPENDITURES ON SPACE

THE SPREAD OF ECONOMIC BENEFITS

CREATION OF NEW INDUSTRIES

ECONOMIC ALLIANCES

PRIVATE ENTERPRISE IN SPACE

JOBS

AUTOMATION AND DISARMAMENT

IV. Values for Everyday Living

TECHNOLOGICAL BENEFITS

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE

COMMUNICATIONS

WEATHER PREDICTION AND MODIFICATION

HEALTH BENEFITS

EDUCATION BENEFITS

V. Long-Range Values

TROUBLE SPOTS

LIMITATIONS ON SPACE RESEARCH

FUNDAMENTAL KNOWLEDGE ABOUT LIFE

PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SPIRITUAL VALUES

MATURING OF THE RACE

Introduction

Table of Contents

This report has been undertaken for a special reason. It is to explain to the taxpayer just why so many of his dollars are going into the American effort to explore space, and to indicate what he can expect in return which is of value to him.

Such an explanation, even after 2 years of relatively high-geared activity in the space exploration field, appears to be warranted. There is still a segment of the U.S. population which has little, if any, notion of the values that the space program has for the average citizen. To these people the expenditure of billions of dollars on missiles, rockets, satellites, Moon probes, and other space activities remains something of a mystery—particularly when so many other worthy projects throughout the land may be slowed or stalled for lack of funds.

If, therefore, the practical value of the American space program is being questioned, it is a question which needs to be answered.

It is interesting to note that the problem is not unique to the United States. In the Soviet Union, which counts itself as the world's prime investigator of space, there is likewise an element of citizenry which finds itself puzzled over the U.S.S.R.'s penchant for the interplanetary reaches.

What do sputniks give to a person like me? a Russian workman complained in a letter which Pravda published on its front page. So much money is spent on sputniks it makes people gasp. If there were no sputniks the Government could cut the cost of cloth for an overcoat in half and put a few electric flatirons in the stores. Rockets, rockets, rockets. Who needs them now?[1]

It goes without saying that the workman was severely chastised by the Soviet newspaper, but his point was made.

No matter where taxpayers live they want to know—and are entitled to know—what good a program of space exploration is to them.

During the 1960's it is expected that the U.S. Government will spend anywhere from $30 to $50 billion on space exploration for all purposes, civilian and military. It is the intent of this report to delineate in lay language, and in terms which will be meaningful to those who have not followed the American space program closely, the reasons for this great investment and the probable returns.

Figure 1.

Figure

1.—A single shot of the 8-barreled Saturn of the future will cost millions of dollars, maybe tens of millions. What makes it worthwhile for the taxpayer?

---

I. The Unseen Values

Table of Contents

The United States has not embarked upon its formidable program of space exploration in order to make or perpetuate a gigantic astronautic boondoggle. There are good reasons, hard reasons for this program. But, in essence, they all boil down to the fact that the program is expected to produce a number of highly valuable payoffs. It not only is expected to do so, it is doing so right now.

Many of the beneficial results can be identified.

Those already showing up are detailed in the sections of this report which follow. They include the most urgent and precious of all commodities—national security. Beyond that, they also include a strengthened national economy, new jobs and job categories, better living, fresh consumer goods, improved education, increased health, stimulated business enterprise and a host of long-range values which may ultimately make the immediate benefits pale into relative insignificance.

Practical uses such as those just listed mean the taxpayer is more than getting his money's worth from American space exploration—and getting a sizable chunk of it today.

Nevertheless, if we can depend on the history of scientific adventure and progress, on its consistent tendencies of the past, then we can be reasonably sure that the greatest, finest benefits to come from our ventures into space are yet unseen.

These are the unpredictable values, the ones which none of us has yet thought of.

Inevitably they lag behind the basic research discoveries needed to make them possible, and often the discoveries are slow to be put to work after they are made. Investors, even governments, are human, and before they invest in something they normally want to know: What good is it?

We can be sure that many American taxpayers of the future will be asking what good is it? in regard to various phases of the space program.

There was an occasion when the great Scottish physicist, James Clerk Maxwell, was asked this question concerning one of his classic discoveries in electromagnetism. Maxwell replied: What good is a baby?

Now, as then, it takes time