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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
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4057664641854
Table of Contents
I. The Unseen Values
SOME EXAMPLES OF THE UNEXPECTED
OUR POSITION IN THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
THE SPREAD OF ECONOMIC BENEFITS
JOBS
IV. Values for Everyday Living
WEATHER PREDICTION AND MODIFICATION
FUNDAMENTAL KNOWLEDGE ABOUT LIFE
PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SPIRITUAL VALUES
Introduction
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.—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