Book: The Practical Values of Space Exploration

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While such predictions may be overly optimistic, they can scarcely be
dismissed as irresponsible in the light of what has already happened.

[Illustration: FIGURE 6.--Booster engines of tomorrow, such as
this mockup of the 1,500,000 pound thrust single engine, will place
broad requirements on men and materials.]


CREATION OF NEW INDUSTRIES

Whether or not we think of the missile-space business as being a
self-contained industry, the requirements and exigencies of space
exploration can be expected to result in the creation of new or greatly
strengthened industrial branches, for example:


_Research_

This phase of the American economy is having a phenomenal growth. Not
only have many established industries now placed research high on their
organizational charts, but hundreds, perhaps thousands, of new
businesses are springing up which are entirely devoted to research and
development. R. & D., as it is called, is their stock in trade, their
only product. And space exploration appears to have given them their
greatest boost.

One recent study on the subject regards research as the fourth major
industrial revolution to take place in American history, following the
advents of steam mechanization, steel, electricity-and-internal
combustion engines.

The fourth industrial revolution, ours, is unique in the number of
people working on it, its complexity, and its power to push the
economy at a rate previously impossible.

Today between 5,000 and 50,000 _technical entrepreneurs_ (top R. &
D. engineers, leading scientists, and highly effective technical
managers) are directly analogous to an estimated 50 to 500 men in
all of the first three periods. Thus about 100 times the effort in
terms of qualitative (effective, creative, patent-producing)
manpower is being spent on the fourth revolution as on the other
three combined.

Total manpower, of course, is much more than that: there are
probably 700,000 engineers and industrially oriented scientists in
the United States today, as against 2,000 even as late as Edison's
first high voltage light bulb. Whereas Edison worked with 20 to 100
scientists in his laboratory, and Fulton labored alone, there are
5,000 industrial laboratories today employing from 20 to 7,300
technical men each.[30]


_New power sources_

One of the greatest demands of spacecraft of the future will be for new
sources of power. While rocket propulsion power is part of this picture,
the power needed to operate space vehicles after launching may prove to
be the larger and more important need. Progress has already been made in
this direction by use of special kinds of batteries and solar cells
which convert the sun's rays into electric current. But these will need
supplementing or replacing eventually as greater power becomes
necessary.

It would be rash to predict the outcome of this complicated field, but
certain very promising methods can be listed.

One is the fuel cell, which converts fuel directly into electric power
without the necessity for machinery or working parts. Much progress has
been made on the fuel cell in recent months. In England a 40-cell unit
has been used to drive a forklift truck and to do electric welding. It
develops up to 5 kilowatts.[31] In the United States a 30-cell portable
powerplant developing 200 watts has been delivered to the Army and
Marine Corps,[32] while a 1,000-unit cell has been developed in the
Midwest which provides 15 kilowatts and drives a tractor.[33]

Another method is plasma power, or power generated through the use of
hot ionized gas. Such gas acts as a conductor of electricity and when
employed as a "magnetohydrodynamics" generator it can be used for a
variety of purposes. It has the advantage of being simple, rugged, and
efficient. Some day it may also prove very economical. Already 10
municipal areas along the Mason-Dixon line are preparing to experiment
with electric power derived from this source.[34] It has been estimated
that "as much as 1 million watts could be generated by shooting a stream
of plasma at speeds three times that of sound through a magnetic field
only 3 feet long and with the magnetic poles 6 inches apart."[35]

[Illustration: FIGURE 7.--The possible power source for space
ships of the future, the ion jet, has significant counterpart uses for
the commercial world.]

Another possible source is photoelectric power. While a number of very
difficult problems block the practical generation of this kind of power,
the astronautics research division of one American company has now
succeeded in increasing the efficiency of photoelectric cells by a
factor of more than 300.[36] So the possibilities in this area are
looking up. As discussed in section II, photon power derived from the
ejection of electromagnetic rays may someday prove a source for
accelerating vehicles once they have escaped from Earth's gravity.

Another possibility, of course, is atomic energy about which much has
been said and written. If, as some scientists believe, extensive space
exploration by manned crews will depend on harnessing this great source
of energy--both for booster purposes and for operating spacecraft in the
distant parts of our interplanetary system--this fact alone may assure
that the obstacles to practical nuclear energy are overcome faster and
more completely than would otherwise be the case. It is interesting to
note that the science of controlling nuclear fusion (as opposed to
fission) has come so far in the past several years that 11 private power
companies are pooling their resources to advance this state of the
art.[37]


_New water sources and uses_

A look into the future indicates very strongly that water will become a
major world problem, possibly by the beginning of the 1970's, which is
likely to be another "dry" decade. Present water supplies, coupled with
the increasing population and the many new uses for water, are barely
adequate now. In another 10 years the situation could be critical.

Part of our national space program includes studies on how to use and
reuse water to the best advantage of the human in space. A number of
avenues are being followed, including vaporization of volatiles in
biological wastes.[38]

From research of this kind it is more than possible that knowledge will
evolve which will prove useful in the practical production of fresh
water from other chemical compounds or mixtures, including seawater.
More than that, it could lead to new ways for extracting much needed
materials from the sea. Seawater contains 40 basic elements, 19 in
relatively copious amounts. These elements run from 18,980 parts parts
per million of chlorine to 0,0000002 part per billion of radium. Yet, so
far, we have learned to extract only bromine and magnesium in useful
amounts.[39] Conversely, the study of how marine animals extract rare
elements from the seawater, such as the extraction of copper compounds
by the octopus, could provide astronautic researchers with important
clues for keeping man alive in space.


_Noise and human engineering_

This is a field in which research has been going on seriously for only a
few years. Most of it has developed since World War II. Human
engineering is involved primarily with the reaction of people to their
immediate surroundings and how to arrange those surroundings in order to
permit the most comfortable and efficient functioning within them.

The noise aspect of human engineering, as it may develop from the
problems of astronauts operating in a silent world, could lead to a
variety of innovations for improving the performance of workers or even
the general attitude of people living in urban areas. In today's world,
where humans are subjected to so many different kinds, degrees, and
sources of noise, psychologists consider the matter to be of no small
importance.


_High speed-light weight computers_

Space vehicles now need electronic computers for determining the
moment of launch, for fixing orbits, for navigation, and for
processing collected data. Computers will precede man into space.
They will take over guidance and decision functions beyond limits
of human physiology, psychology, versatility, and reaction
time.[40]

The trend in this direction is marked and space exploration is
accelerating it. Because of weight and size limitations, and due to the
genius of research, the giant electronic brain of today will soon
disappear and be replaced with an apparatus only a small fraction of its
present size. The implications for the business and professional world
are great. And a not inconsiderable side effect, according to many
modern technicians, will be the flood of brainpower released from
time-consuming chores and thus made available for more basic, creative
thought.

[Illustration: FIGURE 8.--The needs of tomorrow's spacemen will
lead to marked advances in human engineering and psychology.]


_Solid state physics_

Few areas of effort are advancing this extremely promising art faster
than space exploration, which places a premium on light weight and small
size. The miniaturization of equipment being placed in U.S. satellites,
for example, has been one of the contemporary wonders of the world of
science.

A big part of this march toward tiny equipment is in the field of
electronics, where the process is called microminiaturization, molecular
electronics, micromodular engineering or a number of other terms. In
essence it refers to the greatly reduced size of equipment through
"integrated circuits," coupled functions, the building of complicated
components into a single molecular design and so on.

The art has proceeded to the point where complete radios can be reduced
to the size of a lump of sugar.

Clearly, this trend holds almost unlimited utility for the home, the
factory, the marketplace, the highway, the hospital or just about any
other arena one cares to name. So great is the promise that virtually
every electronics company in the country is undertaking "to take the
state of the art into fundamentally new areas" and there exploit its
many possibilities.[41]


ECONOMIC ALLIANCES

It may be that our national space exploration program will also result
in stronger economic alliances, not only within our own national borders
but on an international basis. Interesting speculation to this effect
has been advanced by a prominent official of the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration:

I think we may expect that the combined influence of jet aircraft
and satellite communications systems will enable us to integrate
the now somewhat distant States of Hawaii and Alaska with the rest
of the States as thoroughly as the East and West are already
integrated. Second, and in many ways a more intriguing possibility,
is the prospect of developing a truly international economic
organization. It is quite apparent that even today a large fraction
of the economy of the United States is dependent upon foreign
trade. Some nations of the world, such as England or Japan, are
almost entirely dependent upon foreign trade for their basic
standard of living; however, current foreign trade practices are
necessarily based on a somewhat leisurely pattern enforced by our
current communications capacity. Whether we will be able to
increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our activities in
foreign trade through the use of the new communications facilities
now foreseen will of course depend upon our political ability to
work out viable arrangements for our mutual benefit with our
oversea friends.

One of the lessons of history in the fields of communications is
that an increase in capability has never gone unused. The
capability of doing new things has always resulted in it being
found profitable to use this capability in all fields, both
commercial and governmental.[42]


PRIVATE ENTERPRISE IN SPACE

Up to now space exploration has been more or less the exclusive domain
of the Federal Government. It seems likely that this situation will not
change much in the near future. But the question finally arises: Is the
nature of space such that the traditional American concept of private
enterprise can have no place in it?

On this score there is debate. Recently, however, there have been
indications that businessmen feel they will be able to conduct certain
business operations and services in space.

The space frontier will inevitably increase the scale of thinking
and risk taking by business. When we are dealing with space, we
are dealing with a technology that requires a planetary scale to
stage it; decades of time to develop it; and much bigger
investments to get across the threshold of economic return than is
customary in business today. Business must now think in
international terms, and in terms of the next business generation.
It must step up to the big risks with the same vision that enabled
an earlier generation of builders to push railroad tracks out
across the wilderness and lay the foundations of our modern
economy.[43]

Incidentally, it should be pointed out that space exploration is already
encouraging the formation of business of all sizes. Myriads of small
businesses have sprung up, many of them "suppliers of specialty
equipment for the larger concerns that have responsibility for major
components and systems."[44]

To what extent will private enterprise become involved? Here is one
view:

As the years pass by, and space apparatus becomes more reliable,
and the work of obtaining scientific data from space acquires a
more routine character--certainly many of the necessary operating
facilities could be put on a self-liquidating, private-industry
basis.

Probably the first opportunities for private investment will come
in the commercial use of satellites. Looking even further into the
future of space exploration, perhaps there would be economic
justification for a privately owned launching service that would
put objects into space for the peaceful purposes of friendly
governments, international agencies, industry, and the
universities.

The base itself, from which the commercial launching service would
operate, might be modeled after a port authority. Such a
nonmilitary, international space port could develop as a center for
many private enterprises related to space operations. These might
include service and maintenance facilities; data-processing
services; space communication centers; laboratory facilities;
standardized equipment for satellites and other space vehicles;
fuel supplies; medical services; biological services; and general
supplies.

Moving away from the idea of a commercial space port, must all
future tracking stations, observatories, and data-processing
stations be Government owned? How about experimental stations for
the simulation of space environments? How about laboratories and
stations actually constructed in space? Or will privately owned
facilities one day offer these services on an international basis
to governments, industries, universities, and international
agencies?

Most likely the first businesses suitable for commercial operation,
using space technologies, will be worldwide communication by
satellite, private weather forecasting, and high-speed Earth
transport by rocket.[45]

[Illustration: FIGURE 9.--The electric and electronic needs of
the space program are requiring more and more skilled labor.]


JOBS

There probably is no reliable way to gage the number of Americans who
are employed today because of the national space effort, nor to estimate
accurately the number who are likely to be employed in the years ahead.

This much can be said, though. They already number in the tens of
thousands, probably in the hundreds of thousands.

The Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
has reported that his agency presently employs 18,000 persons. And he
adds "in spite of the size of this organization, we estimate that
approximately 75 percent of our budget will be expended through
contracts with industry, educational institutions, and other
nongovernmental groups."

Thus the number of persons privately employed who are working on NASA
projects is, of itself, a high figure. The number employed in, by, or
for the Department of Defense on missiles or space-related projects is
undoubtedly higher.

In addition to these must be added the men and women employed by private
industry in a capacity not directly related to the space program but
whose jobs have been created nonetheless by its stimulus.

The fact is that the military and peaceful needs of the space
program are already employing a significant percentage of the
industrial work force, and will make up an even larger proportion
of total employment and production of the country as the years go
by. The aircraft industry, for example, is broadening its scope to
include missile and space technologies. Much of the electronics
industry is devoted to missile and space needs. The communications,
chemical, and metallurgical industries are increasingly involved.
These industries are already among the largest employers in the
United States, and they are the major employers of the Nation's
technical manpower. Hence we are not speaking of a minor element in
the national economy, but of its leading growth industries.[46]

This phase of the space program's value should not be eyed merely from
the standpoint of scientists and the labor market. It has major
significance for the professions--for doctors, lawyers, architects,
teachers, and engineers. All of these will be vitally concerned with
space exploration in the future. The doctor with space medicine and its
results; the lawyer with business relations and a vastly increased need
for knowledge in international law; the architect with the construction
of spaceports and data and tracking facilities; the teacher with the
booming demand for new types of space-engendered curricula.

As for the engineer--

In this pyramid of scientific and engineering effort there will be
found requirements for the services of almost every type of
scientist and engineer to a greater or less degree. In the
forefront, of course, are the aerospace and astronautical engineers
but the development of the Saturn launching vehicle has also
enlisted the cooperation of civil, mechanical, electrical,
metallurgical, chemical, automotive, structural, radio, and
electronics engineers. Much of their work relates to ground
handling equipment, special automotive and barge equipment,
checkout equipment, and all the other devices needed to support the
design, construction, testing, launching, and data gathering.[47]


AUTOMATION AND DISARMAMENT

Finally, an economic value of extreme importance could be the ultimate
role of the space program in modifying the threat to labor which is
inherent in automation and disarmament. Space exploration, opening up
new and profitable vistas, could take up much of the slack thus imposed
and do it at a higher and more intellectual job level.

Automation, as we know, is already in the process. In agriculture alone
it has bitten deeply into the laboring force and yet produces greater
crops than ever.[48] It is gathering strength in many other fields.

Disarmament is a long way from being a reality. But all nations of the
world are striving for it, or at least giving lipservice to its
principles, so it may one day emerge as a reality. If this happens,
space exploration again may be a most important element in taking up the
slack which a prominent reduction in defense activity could not help but
bring about.

Indeed, there are some who already foresee a complete substitution of
space for defense, and who prognosticate that in the 1990's "the economy
of nations is now based on the astronautics industry, instead of
war."[49] Certainly, some new economic force would be crucial to nations
deprived of the need for devising and manufacturing weapons.

[Illustration: FIGURE 10.--A host of new materials, skills, and
engineering techniques are bound up in the construction of rocket
engines such as this first stage booster.]

FOOTNOTES:

[25] Gavin, James M., address to the International Bankers Association,
Bal Harbour, Fla., Dec. 2, 1958.

[26] Mitchell, Hon. Erwin, in the House of Representatives, June 2,
1960.

[27] Dryden, Dr. Hugh L., Deputy Administrator, NASA, Penrose lecture
before the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, Apr. 21, 1960.

[28] Missile-Space Directory, Missiles and Rockets, May 30, 1960, pp.
86-359.

[29] Haley, Andrew G., general counsel and past president of the
International Astronautical Federation, "Rocketry and Space
Exploration." Van Nostrand Co., Princeton, N.J., 1958 p. 156.

[30] Ruzic, Neil P., "The Technical Entrepreneur," Industrial Research,
May 1980, p.10.

[31] Bacon, F. T., "The Fuel Cell, Power Source of the Future," New
Scientist, Aug. 17, 1959, p.272.

[32] Science Service dispatch, dateline Lynn, Mass., Apr. 25, 1950.

[33] Sharp, James M., "The Application of Fuel Cells in the Natural Gas
Industry," Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Tex., Mar. 4,
1960, pp. 2-3.

[34] Lear, John, "Towns To Be Lit by Plasma," New Scientist, Nov. 19,
1959, p. 1006.

[35] Pursglove S. David, Industrial Research, March 1950 p. 19.

[36] Ibid.

[37] Ibid., p. 18.

[38] Space Business Daily, June 13, 1960.

[39] Cox, Dr. R. A., "The Chemistry of Seawater," New Scientist, Sept.
24, 19459, p. 518.

[40] Hines, L. J., Space Age News, Apr. 25, 1960, p. 4.

[41] Gaertner, W. W., "Functional Microelectronics," Missile Design and
Development, March 1960, p. 34.

[42] Stewart, Dr. Homer J., address to the American Bar Association,
Miami Beach, Aug. 25, 1959.

[43] Cordiner, Ralph J., "Competitive Private Enterprise in Space,"
lecture at U.C.L.A., May 4, 1960

[44] Ibid.

[45] Ibid.

[46] Ibid.

[47] 27 supra.

[48] See "The Problem of Plenty," U.S. News & World Report, Apr. 13,
1959, p. 97.

[49] Markuwitz, Meyer M., and Gentieu, Norman P., "The Rocket, A Past
and Future History," Industrial Research, December 1959, p. 78.




IV. VALUES FOR EVERYDAY LIVING


The so-called side effects of the space exploration program are showing
a remarkable ability to produce innovations which, in turn, improve the
quality of everyday work and everyday living throughout the United
States.

In setting forth specific ways and means in which the space program is
producing practical uses, it must be kept in mind that no attempt is
made here to separate uses resulting from the civil phases of the
program from those developed by the military phases. Inasmuch as the two
are closely intertwined, it would seem impractical to do so. And, in
instances where the same or similar research is being conducted by a
single contractor on behalf of both phases, it is usually impossible to
do so.


TECHNOLOGICAL BENEFITS

This category of the practical uses of the space program is impressive
indeed.

Most of us are familiar with the plans which the United States has for
using artificial satellites in ways which will be beneficial to all
mankind. These include the satellite used for worldwide communications,
for global television, for quick and accurate navigation, and for much
improved weather prediction and weather understanding.

Here, however, is a summary of space-related developments about which
the American public has heard considerably less:

First, there is the high-speed computer. Developed initially to
meet military demands for faster calculation, the computer is an
integral part of American industry, making it possible to do many
operations with a high degree of efficiency and accuracy.
Thermoelectric devices for heating and cooling, now adapted for
commercial applications, were originally designed to provide energy
sources for space vehicles. The glass industry, as a result of work
done during and after the Second World War on lenses and plastics,
promises substantial gains in the consumer fields of optics and
foods. Pyroceram, developed for missile radomes, is now being used
in the manufacture of pots and pans. Materials suitable for use in
the nuclear preservation of food may make us even better fed than
we already are.

Medical research, and our health problems, can use such things as
film resistance thermometers. Electronic equipment capable of
measuring low-level electrical signals is being adapted to measure
body temperature and blood flow. In a dramatic breakthrough,
illustrating the unexpected benefits of research, it has been found
that a derivative of hydrazine, developed as a liquid missile
propellant, is useful in treating certain mental illnesses and
tuberculosis.

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