Benefits Of Space Exploration Essay, Research Paper

Outline

I. Introduction

A. Critics point to waste and lack of direct impact on

individuals

II. Benefits

A. Environmental

1. Ocean example

2. Ozone depletion

a. TOMS and phase-out of harmful chemicals

b. Anarctic hole in the ozone layer

B. Medical

1. MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging)

a. Diagnoses

b. Phase-out of exploratory surgery

2. Telemedicine

3. Digital breast Biopsy system

C. Consumer and other products

1. Robotics

2. Cable television industry

3. Teflon

a. Cookware

b. Carpets

c. Clothing

D. Congressional Mandate

1. mandating NASA to share with the private sector

E. Conclusion

1. Critics will remain negative

Kenneth Taylor Taylor 1

Mr. Joyner

English 1102

9 April 1998

The Benefits of Space Exploration

There are critics from many corners who condemn the

amounts of money spent in the pursuit of space. Some say

there is no need to ?waste? money playing around in space

when there are so many people right here on earth who need

help and could better use that money that now goes for space

exploration and experimentation. Morton says, ?The huge

increase in government-financed research and development

that came with Apollo did not increase America’s overall

technological lead. It may even reduced it, by drawing

scientific and commercial talent into heroic fields and away

from prosaic ones?People who would scorn to put extra

dollars into welfare payments are happy to recommend that

scientific explorers be given billions, bewitched by the

frontier dreams of manifest destiny? (Morton 18).

What Morton and others who hold with his views fail to

take into account, however, are the vast benefits that we

have already realized from space exploration. If we never

gained any more benefits from our own space program than we

have already seen, attaining them was well worth the cost in

terms of the monies spent.

We haven?t heard much environmental comment in the past

ten years from environmentalist actors on television

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commercials claiming that the ocean would be dead within

seven years. Trained in acting rather than in oceanography

or marine biology, some of these outspoken, visible souls

were misled by other environmentalists in their claims of

the proximity of catastrophe, and lacked either the ability

or desire to educate themselves on their subjects of

interest before speaking out so publicly.

The earth?s ozone layer is another ?dying ocean? topic.

Unlike the uneducated actors, however, ?scientists around

the world are working to determine how much of the ozone

related change in the atmosphere is caused by humans, and

how much is attributed to natural processes? (Kenitzer

1996). Of the several NASA space labs scattered across the

country, Goddard Space Flight Center is the one most focused

on environmental matters. As such, Goddard teams are

responsible for measuring and monitoring ozone levels found

in the earth?s atmosphere.

Launched in 1978 aboard the Nimbus 7 polar orbiting

satellite, NASA?s ?most visible and best-known ozone

research instrument is the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer

(TOMS)? (Kenitzer 1996) is managed by Goddard and provides

high-resolution maps of global ozone levels. Ozone

depletion data supplied from TOMS has been instrumental in

global agreements to phase out the use of ozone-depleting

chemicals worldwide. The Antarctic ozone hole is seasonal

and cyclical, being most prominent between August and

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October of each year. Though we don?t yet know how much of

the witnessed ozone depletion is natural and how much is

man-made, TOMS data shows that the seasonal depletion grew

every year between its discovery in 1979 and 1994, when the

depletion was the most dramatic ever recorded. Since then,

however, the seasonal depletion has been shown to be much

less severe than in the past (Kenitzer 1996).

Goddard manages other environmental survey systems

using data collected from satellite-mounted mechanisms.

TOMS is simply the most visible because of the popular

interest in the topic of ozone depletion, to the point that

its discussion among the most ill-informed of the staunch

environmentalists has replaced the death of the ocean that

didn?t happen as predicted.

Other benefits of the space program concern diagnostic

and monitoring techniques and devices used in the medical

field. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a direct

outgrowth of the system developed for use on manned space

missions, and today is a standard diagnostic tool in every

major hospital in the country (Cone 18). Since it reveals

the structures of the soft tissues within the body,

radiologists no longer are forced to rely solely on X-rays

in order to make a ?best guess? about what might be

happening within an individual?s body. No longer relegated

to dealing with visual shadows on X-rays, radiologists can

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attain perfect views of internal systems from any

perspective they wish (Cone 18).

MRI has also moved exploratory surgery closer and

closer to the realm of obsolescence. That in itself is a

major benefit?there is growing concern and potential

evidence that cancerous growths only begin their rampant

runs after exposure to the atmosphere. If that theory does

indeed prove to be true, then MRI has already saved lives in

numbers of which no one can measure.

Another medical benefit resulting from the necessary

monitoring of manned space expeditions is that of

telemedicine. ?Telemedicine is the interactive transmission

of medical images and data to provide better health care for

people in remote or ?medically underserved? locations. The

concept has been around since the 1920s and its general

viability has been demonstrated since the 1950s, but wide

adoption was slowed by high costs and technological

shortcomings? (www.sti.nasa.gov). Though the first reasons

for the idea of telemedicine had more to do with providing

services for those in remote areas, the entire focus has

changed in light of the burgeoning cost of health care in

this country in recent years. The transmission of a heart

rate and pattern over phone lines is much more convenient

for the patient with such ailments, and it holds down the

costs of health care without decreasing the quality of care

nor reducing the attention of maintenance procedures. There

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are serious questions about the viability of Medicare

programs; this can be a useful cost-saving measure.

Another benefit derived from the space program is the

digital imaging breast biopsy system. This system images

breast tissue more clearly and efficiently that earlier

methods. Known as stereotactic large-core needle biopsy,

this nonsurgical system was derived from Space Telescope

Technology. The beauty of the new method is that it is less

intrusive, reduces the pain, scarring, radiation exposure,

time, and money associated with surgical biopsies

(www.thespaceplace.com).

The nay-sayers frequently concede that there have been

benefits, but none that affect the population as a whole,

choosing to view improved health care and diagnosis as areas

that affect only those experiencing immediate problems and

totally divorcing themselves from military advantages. Many

of them maintain that there is no practical application in

the lives of people in general, but they neglect to consider

such routine, mundane items as cookware and cable

television.

There may be some households in this country that do

not have at least one Teflon?coated skillet, but there

cannot possibly be many of them. DuPont, the company that

developed Teflon under contract to NASA for use in space

exploration, has gained much in sales and royalties of their

product. Teflon has been used as carpet finishes for

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several years, and now clothing manufacturers are even

joining in (Lord and Brindley 72). This one product has

direct, daily impact on the people of the country, and the

effects on DuPont?s bottom line serves to ever-strengthen

the economy, in whatever percentage.

The cable television industry alone is one of billions,

and is now totally dependent on satellite transmission. It

also has the attention of millions of viewers each and every

day of the week. Again, the percentage of contribution to

the nation?s economy may not in itself be exceedingly

impressive, though that same contribution determines the

fortunes of the businesses involved in it. It is

strengthening, nonetheless.

NASA is mandated by Congress to ?promote the transfer

to the private sector of technologies developed in the

course of aerospace research, and many of the technologies

that make telemedicine possible were originally developed

for acquiring visual information from lunar and planetary

spacecraft? (www.sti.nasa.gov).

Though NASA might not be so willing to share with

private industry all the technological advances their

budgets allow them to achieve without the Congressional

mandate, the fact is that that mandate does exist, and NASA

does comply. In addition, many of the NASA scientists are

the foremost in their fields of expertise and have a high

level of interest in contributing the most good for the most

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people. Of course NASA?s primary interest is a successful

space program, but the technological strides they make are

available for all of us who pay their bills.

The nay-sayers are always with us, but they

consistently refuse to examine the benefits we have already

gained from this country?s space program. Those benefits

have hardly been touched on in a paper of this length: a

study of the robotics advances that prevent workers from

having to be exposed to hazardous environments or relieve

human counterparts from mindless, repetitious manufacturing

processes has not even been addressed here. Neither has

been the invaluable military uses afforded by some of the

many satellites now orbiting the earth (Anderson 19).

There are more (and more) examples of the benefits we

as a nation have realized from advances made by means of the

space program. All the benefits addressed here are

literally down-to-earth; not one mention has been made of

the potentials we have reached in the actual environment of

space itself.

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Anderson, Douglas. ?A Military Look Into Space: the

Ultimate High Ground.,? Army Lawyer, (1995) : November, p.

19.

Cone, Robert J. ?Medical Imaging.,? How the New Technology

Works: A Guide to

High-tech Concepts (1991) :Vol. 1, Sept., p. 18-26.

http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/spinoff1996/27.html

http://www.thesapceplace.com

Kenitzer, Allen. ?Expanding Horizons with Science and

Discovery.,? Goddard Space Flight Center,

http://pao.gsfc.nasa.gov/, (1996) : May 20.

Lord, Mary and Brindley, David. ?You Can be Dressed to

Spill.,? U.S. News & World Report, (1997) : May 19, p. 72.

Morton, O. ?To Boldly Go?,? Economist, (1991) : June 15, p.

18.