Space Station: The Next Logical Step to National Distress

The Next Logical Step to National Distress I It is no news that the civilian space program of the United States is now in a state of massive disarray. The program has the professional obligation to ”get its act back together.” My position is that undertaking development of a space station at this time will impede rather than advance this effort. Let me explain. In 1946, the United States began high altitude research using scientific equipment carried by rocket-propelled vehicles through and above the atmosphere of the earth. This early work laid the foundations, both technical and scientific, for the effective utilization of earth satellites and spacecraft on deep space missions. The birth of the space age, following a gestation period of some eleven years, is usually said to have occurred on October 4, 1957 with the launch of Sputnik I. The United States has now passed through a very difficult and expensive adolescence and has reached a level of substantial maturity in understanding the great potential of space techniques. But, as a nation, it is continuing to behave like an adolescent in the sense that it is not really using its experience thoughtfully and effectively. I listened very carefully to President Reagan’s State of the Union address on January 25, 1984 and later got a transcript of it. It was very pleasant to hear his endorsement of our civilian space program, but I was appalled by its emphasis, which is represented in the following quotation: We can follow our dreams to distant stars, living and working in space for peaceful, economic and scientific gain. Tonight, I am directing NASA to develop a permanently manned space station and to do it within a decade. A space station will permit quantum leaps in our research in science, communications, and in metals and life-saving medicines which can be manufactured only in space. He continued with remarks on the enormous potential for commerce in space. A year later the President reiterated his enthusiasm for space as the ”next frontier” and emphasized ”man’s permanent presence in space” and the lames A. Van Allen, Caruer Professor of Physics, Emeritus at the Uniziersity of lowa in lowa City, was one of fhefounders of scientific research in space in 1946. He discovered the radiation belts of the earth with the first successful Americaii satellite Explorer I in early 1958 and has subsequently served as principal investigator on twenty-four earth orbital, lunar, and planetary missions. His current research is with Pioneers 10 and 11 which made the first ever encounters with the planets lupiter and Saturn. International Security, Spring 1987 (Vol. 11, No 4) 01987by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 183 lnternatioizal Security I 184 bright prospects for manufacturing large quantities of medicines for curing disease and extraordinary crystals for revolutionizing electronics-all in the proposed space station. As a basis for national policy, these statements were hyperbolic and poorly grounded in experience. Indeed, such statements do the entire U.S. space effort a substantial disservice by creating quite unrealistic expectations. In the following discussion, some of the basic elements of forty years of U.S. experience in space are described. Despite much speculation, only one truly commercial application of space technology has emerged thus far: the great global network of communication satellites and the associated industry, including launch vehicles. Private companies have, of course, a central role in providing space equipment and services to the federal government. But these functions do not qualify for the usual understanding of the term “commercialization,” that is, developing products andlor services that pay their own way in the nongovernmental marketplace. There are many other important utilitarian applications of space technology : weather observation and forecasting; remote sensing of the earth’s surface resources; marine and aircraft navigation; the applied sciences of the sun and of the earth’s ionosphere, magnetosphere, atmosphere, and oceans; and reconnaissance, surveillance, and other military applications that are technically similar to those for civil purposes. But all of these applications remain wholly or principally in the area of governmental services. Nearly all of the above-mentioned applications of space technology and nearly all of...