Societal Impact Of Spaceflight

Since the dawn of spaceflight, advocates of a robust space effort have argued that human activity beyond Earth makes a significant difference in everyday life. Assertions abound about the "impact" of spaceflight on society and its relationship to the larger contours of human existence. Fifty years after the Space Age began, it is time to examine the effects of spaceflight on society in a historically rigorous way. Has the Space Age indeed had a significant effect on society? If so, what are those influences? What do we mean by an "impact" on society? And what parts of society? Conversely, has society had any effect on spaceflight? What would be different had there been no Space Age? The purpose of this volume is to examine these and related questions through scholarly research, making use especially of the tools of the historian and the broader social sciences and humanities. Herein a stellar array of scholars does just that, and arrives at sometimes surprising conclusions.

This volume presents a series of in-depth studies on the mutual interaction of space exploration and society--part of a larger need to understand the relationships between science, technology, and society. After beginning with a study of public attitudes toward space over time, it then moves on to specific case studies of potential "spinoffs" from NASA's space program in the areas of medical technology, integrated circuits, and the multibillion-dollar industry today known as MEMS (microelectromechanical systems). These studies explicitly raise the difficult questions of what can be considered spinoff and how much of any particular claimed spinoff can be attributed to NASA. Beyond spinoffs, the final part of the volume considers broader issues of space and society, including the controversy over the use of nuclear components in spacecraft, the relationship between NASA and the environment, the impact of applications satellites, and the impact of the Apollo program. Space exploration has also spawned entirely new disciplines, including astrogeology, astrochemistry, and even astrotheology. The final chapter explores the budding discipline of astrosociology.

This excellent new book from NASA presents a series of in-depth studies on specific subjects on the societal impact of spaceflight. It represents an effort to understand the mutual interaction of space exploration and society--part of a larger need to understand the relationship between science, technology, and society. Emphasizing the importance of public attitudes toward space, the volume opens with sociologist William Sims Bainbridge's study of the impact of space exploration on public attitudes. "Spinoff" is the first aspect that comes to mind for most people who think at all about the impact of space exploration, those technologies that are thought--wrongly or rightly--to have emanated from the space program. Part II consists of case studies of specific potential spinoffs and explicitly raises the difficult questions of what can be considered spinoff and how much of any particular claimed spinoff can be attributed to NASA--thus the interrogatory "Spinoff?" title for this section rather than the usual declarative "Spinoff." Though NASA claims many spinoffs and publishes an annual Spinoff report, it seldom parses its claims very finely. The three chapters in this part aim to do just that. Bainbridge's study of medical technology reinforces the judgment of social scientists who wrote 30 to 40 years ago that spinoffs are a problematic concept: they may not reflect the most important channels by which NASA contributes to scientific and technological progress, even if they do provide coherent stories to communicate with the general public about the history of space exploration.Andrew J. Butrica tackles the oft-made claim that NASA played a major role in the early development and use of integrated circuits. In particular, he addresses a specific question: What was the role of NASA in improving the manufacture of integrated circuits during the Apollo era? Butrica finds that the answer is not so simple. In a second and related essay, he shows that another claim--that the multibillion-dollar industry known as MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) originated at NASA--was actually such a close collaboration with nearby Stanford University that this story is also much more complex than usually thought. Butrica's conclusions are also in accord with an earlier finding that even if a particular spinoff can be attributed in whole or in part to NASA, attribution to individuals is still more difficult.Historical Studies in the Societal Impact of Spaceflight * PART I - OPINION * Chapter 1 - The Impact of Space Exploration on Public Opinions, Attitudes, and Beliefs - William Sims Bainbridge * PART II - SPINOFF? * Chapter 2 - Societal Impact of NASA on Medical Technology - William Sims Bainbridge * Chapter 3 - NASA's Role in the Manufacture of Integrated Circuits - Andrew J. Butrica * Chapter 4 - NASA's Role in the Development of MEMS (Microelectromechanical Systems) - Andrew J. Butrica * PART III - THE WORLD AT LARGE * Chapter 5 - Powering Space Exploration: U.S. Space Nuclear Power, Public Perceptions, and Outer Planetary Probes - Roger D. Launius * Chapter 6 - NASA and the Environment: An Evolving Relationship - W. Henry Lambright * Chapter 7 - Societal Impacts of Applications Satellites - David J. Whalen * Chapter 8 - Impacts of the Apollo Program on NASA, the Space Community, and Society - Eligar Sadeh * Chapter 9 - An Astrosociological Perspective on the Societal Impact of Spaceflight - Jim Pass

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In 1958, mankind's centuries-long flirtation with space flight became a torrid love affair. For a decade, tens of millions of people were enraptured -- first, by the U.S.-Soviet race to the moon, and finally, as America outstripped its rival, by Project Apollo alone. It is now more than three decades since the last man walked on the moon...more time than between the first moonwalk and the beginning of World War II. Apollo did not, as had been promised by a generation of visionaries, herald the beginning of the Space Age, but its end. Or did it? Project Apollo, like a cannonball, reached its apogee and returned to earth, but the trajectory of that return was complex. America's atmosphere -- its economic, scientific, and cultural atmosphere -- made for a very complicated reentry that produced many solutions to the trajectory problem. Rocket Dreams is about those solutions...about the places where the space program landed. In Rocket Dreams, an extraordinarily talented young writer named Marina Benjamin will take you on a journey to those landing sites. A visit with retired astronauts at a celebrity autograph show is a starting point down the divergent paths taken by the pioneers, including Edgar Mitchell, founder of the "church" of Noëtic Sciences. Roswell, New Mexico is a landing site of a different order, the "magnetic north" of UFO belief in the United States -- a belief that began its most dramatic growth precisely at the time that the path of the space program began its descent. In the vernacular, the third law of motion states that what goes up, must come down. Thus the tremendous motive force that energized the space program didn't just vanish; it was conserved and transformed, making bestsellers out of fantasy literature, spawning Gaia, and giving symbolism to the environmental movement. Everything from the pop cultural boom in ufology to the worldwide Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) feeds on the energy given off by America's leap toward space. Rocket Dreams is an eloquent tour of this Apollo-scarred landscape. It is also an introduction to some of the most fascinating characters imaginable: Some long dead, like the crackpot visionary Alfred Lawson, who saw in space flight a new stage of human evolution ("Alti-Man"), or Robert Goddard, the father of rocketry, whose workshop in Roswell stands only half a mile from shops selling posters of alien visitors. Others are very much alive -- like Stewart Brand, creator of the Whole Earth Catalog and partner with Gerard O'Neill in the drive to build free-floating space colonies, and SETI astronomer Seth Shostak, who has spent decades listening to the skies, hoping for the first contact with another intelligent species. Perceptive, original, and wonderfully written, informed by history, science, and an acute knowledge of popular culture, Rocket Dreams is a brilliant book by a remarkable talent.

Spaceflight is a rational undertaking, yet full of emotions. It is a dream of mankind and a multi-billion industry likewise. It is subject to a distinct branch of law – and moreover part of modern pop culture. In short: spaceflight is fascinating. “Outer Space in society, politics and law” is an inter-disciplinary approach to the understanding of modern space law. Technical, cultural and historical aspects lay the foundation for a sound comprehension why space law norms have been established and what they mean in practice. The reader will realize the impact space and spaceflight have on society – from Stonehenge to climate change. A new approach to presenting space law: comprehensive and illustrative. “We live in a society absolutely dependent on science and technology and yet have cleverly arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. That's a clear prescription for disaster.” Carl Sagan