The Practical Values of Space Exploration | Page 5

with timidity, inhibited imagination or too much convention. Neither is there any point in trying to hold off the tempo of this oncoming age or, in any other way, to evade it.
Mark Twain once listened to the complaints of an old riverboat pilot who was having trouble making the switch from sail to steam. The old pilot wanted no part of the newfangled steam contraptions. "Maybe so," replied Twain, "but when it's steamboat time, you steam."[7]
Today is space time and man is going to explore it.
[Illustration: FIGURE 3.--The versatile Atlas can be used either for launching man into space or to carry a nuclear warhead as far as 9,000 miles.]
FOOTNOTES:
[2] Gavin, Lt. Gen. James M., U.S. Army (retired), speech to the American Rocket Society, New York City, Nov. 19, 1958.
[3] Kramer, Max O., "The Dolphins' Secret," New Scientist, May 5, 1960, pp. 1118-1120.
[4] Bikerman, Dr. Jacob J., reported in New Scientist, Mar. 3, 1960, p. 535.
[5] "Introduction to Outer Space," a statement by the President, the White House, Mar. 26, 1958.
[6] Clarke, Arthur C., "The Challenge of the Spaceships," Harper & Bros., New York, 1955, p. 15.
[7] Related by T. Keith Glennan, Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, in an address before the Worcester (Mass.) Economic Club, Feb. 15, 1960.

II. NATIONAL SECURITY VALUES
There is no longer doubt that space exploration holds genuine significance for the security and well-being of the United States as a nation.
It does so in at least three ways. One results from the uses which our Armed Forces can make of the knowledge gained from space exploration. A second results from the influence and prestige which America can exert within the world community because of her prowess in space exploration. A third results from the possibility that space exploration, eventually, may prove so immense and important a challenge that it will channel the prime energies of powerful nations toward its own end and thus reduce the current emphasis on developing means of destruction.
The first two values definitely exist. The third seems to be a reasonable hope.
THE MILITARY USES
From the beginning it has been recognized that space exploration, the research connected therewith, and the ability to operate therein is of more than passing interest to the military.
Congress recognized the fact when it passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 and directed that "activities peculiar to or primarily associated with the development of weapons systems, military operations, or the defense of the United States * * * shall be the responsibility of, and shall be directed by, the Department of Defense."[8] In the amendments to the Space Act proposed in 1960, this directive was strengthened: "The Department of Defense shall undertake such activities in space, and such research and development connected therewith, as may be necessary for the defense of the United States."[9]
It is possible to argue, and indeed it has been argued, that ballistic missiles such as IRBM's and ICBM's are not really "space" weapons, that they are simply an extension of the traditional art of artillery. For the purposes of this report, however, the argument appears to be largely a semantic one. Such missiles do traverse space, they are guided through space, and they employ the same engines and principles which are presently used for purposes of scientific space exploration. While more advanced "space" weapons may evolve in the future, the missile as we know it today cannot very well be divorced from our thinking about space and its practical uses.
Going on this assumption, and casting an eye in the direction of the Iron Curtain, it is obvious that the Soviet Union is going all-out to exploit space for military purposes.
Military men have known for years that the tremendously powerful booster which the Soviets have been using to launch their massive sputniks was originally designed to carry the primitive heavy version of the A-bomb across continents.
If there was ever doubt of the extent to which the Soviets intend to make space a selected medium for military purposes it was erased when Premier Khrushchev made his address to the Supreme Soviet early in 1960. He commented in part:
Our state has at its disposal powerful rocket equipment. The military air force and navy have lost their previous importance in view of the modern development of military equipment. This type of armament is not being reduced but replaced. Almost the entire military air force is being replaced by rocket equipment. We have by now sharply cut, and it seems will continue sharply to cut and even discontinue the manufacture of bombers and other obsolete equipment. In the navy, the submarine fleet assumes great importance, while surface ships can no longer play the part they once did. In our country the armed forces have been to a considerable extent transferred to rocket and nuclear arms. These arms are being