Whether or not we think of the missile-space business as being a
self-contained industry, the requirements and exigencies of space
exploration can be expected to result in the creation of new or greatly
strengthened industrial branches, for example:
_Research_
This phase of the American economy is having a phenomenal growth. Not
only have many established industries now placed research high on their
organizational charts, but hundreds, perhaps thousands, of new
businesses are springing up which are entirely devoted to research and
development. R. & D., as it is called, is their stock in trade, their
only product. And space exploration appears to have given them their
greatest boost.
One recent study on the subject regards research as the fourth major
industrial revolution to take place in American history, following the
advents of steam mechanization, steel, electricity-and-internal
combustion engines.
The fourth industrial revolution, ours, is unique in the number of
people working on it, its complexity, and its power to push the
economy at a rate previously impossible.
Today between 5,000 and 50,000 _technical entrepreneurs_ (top R. &
D. engineers, leading scientists, and highly effective technical
managers) are directly analogous to an estimated 50 to 500 men in
all of the first three periods. Thus about 100 times the effort in
terms of qualitative (effective, creative, patent-producing)
manpower is being spent on the fourth revolution as on the other
three combined.
Total manpower, of course, is much more than that: there are
probably 700,000 engineers and industrially oriented scientists in
the United States today, as against 2,000 even as late as Edison's
first high voltage light bulb. Whereas Edison worked with 20 to 100
scientists in his laboratory, and Fulton labored alone, there are
5,000 industrial laboratories today employing from 20 to 7,300
technical men each.[30]
_New power sources_
One of the greatest demands of spacecraft of the future will be for new
sources of power. While rocket propulsion power is part of this picture,
the power needed to operate space vehicles after launching may prove to
be the larger and more important need. Progress has already been made in
this direction by use of special kinds of batteries and solar cells
which convert the sun's rays into electric current. But these will need
supplementing or replacing eventually as greater power becomes
necessary.
It would be rash to predict the outcome of this complicated field, but
certain very promising methods can be listed.
One is the fuel cell, which converts fuel directly into electric power
without the necessity for machinery or working parts. Much progress has
been made on the fuel cell in recent months. In England a 40-cell unit
has been used to drive a forklift truck and to do electric welding. It
develops up to 5 kilowatts.[31] In the United States a 30-cell portable
powerplant developing 200 watts has been delivered to the Army and
Marine Corps,[32] while a 1,000-unit cell has been developed in the
Midwest which provides 15 kilowatts and drives a tractor.[33]
Another method is plasma power, or power generated through the use of
hot ionized gas. Such gas acts as a conductor of electricity and when
employed as a "magnetohydrodynamics" generator it can be used for a
variety of purposes. It has the advantage of being simple, rugged, and
efficient. Some day it may also prove very economical. Already 10
municipal areas along the Mason-Dixon line are preparing to experiment
with electric power derived from this source.[34] It has been estimated
that "as much as 1 million watts could be generated by shooting a stream
of plasma at speeds three times that of sound through a magnetic field
only 3 feet long and with the magnetic poles 6 inches apart."[35]
[Illustration: FIGURE 7.--The possible power source for space
ships of the future, the ion jet, has significant counterpart uses for
the commercial world.]
Another possible source is photoelectric power. While a number of very
difficult problems block the practical generation of this kind of power,
the astronautics research division of one American company has now
succeeded in increasing the efficiency of photoelectric cells by a
factor of more than 300.[36] So the possibilities in this area are
looking up. As discussed in section II, photon power derived from the
ejection of electromagnetic rays may someday prove a source for
accelerating vehicles once they have escaped from Earth's gravity.
Another possibility, of course, is atomic energy about which much has
been said and written. If, as some scientists believe, extensive space
exploration by manned crews will depend on harnessing this great source
of energy--both for booster purposes and for operating spacecraft in the
distant parts of our interplanetary system--this fact alone may assure
that the obstacles to practical nuclear energy are overcome faster and
more completely than would otherwise be the case. It is interesting to
note that the science of controlling nuclear fusion (as opposed to
fission) has come so far in the past several years that 11 private power
companies are pooling their resources to advance this state of the
art.[37]
_New water sources and uses_
A look into the future indicates very strongly that water will become a
major world problem, possibly by the beginning of the 1970's, which is
likely to be another "dry" decade. Present water supplies, coupled with
the increasing population and the many new uses for water, are barely
adequate now. In another 10 years the situation could be critical.
Part of our national space program includes studies on how to use and
reuse water to the best advantage of the human in space. A number of
avenues are being followed, including vaporization of volatiles in
biological wastes.[38]
From research of this kind it is more than possible that knowledge will
evolve which will prove useful in the practical production of fresh
water from other chemical compounds or mixtures, including seawater.
More than that, it could lead to new ways for extracting much needed
materials from the sea. Seawater contains 40 basic elements, 19 in
relatively copious amounts. These elements run from 18,980 parts parts
per million of chlorine to 0,0000002 part per billion of radium. Yet, so
far, we have learned to extract only bromine and magnesium in useful
amounts.[39] Conversely, the study of how marine animals extract rare
elements from the seawater, such as the extraction of copper compounds
by the octopus, could provide astronautic researchers with important
clues for keeping man alive in space.
_Noise and human engineering_
This is a field in which research has been going on seriously for only a
few years. Most of it has developed since World War II. Human
engineering is involved primarily with the reaction of people to their
immediate surroundings and how to arrange those surroundings in order to
permit the most comfortable and efficient functioning within them.
The noise aspect of human engineering, as it may develop from the
problems of astronauts operating in a silent world, could lead to a
variety of innovations for improving the performance of workers or even
the general attitude of people living in urban areas. In today's world,
where humans are subjected to so many different kinds, degrees, and
sources of noise, psychologists consider the matter to be of no small
importance.
_High speed-light weight computers_
Space vehicles now need electronic computers for determining the
moment of launch, for fixing orbits, for navigation, and for
processing collected data. Computers will precede man into space.
They will take over guidance and decision functions beyond limits
of human physiology, psychology, versatility, and reaction
time.[40]
The trend in this direction is marked and space exploration is
accelerating it. Because of weight and size limitations, and due to the
genius of research, the giant electronic brain of today will soon
disappear and be replaced with an apparatus only a small fraction of its
present size. The implications for the business and professional world
are great. And a not inconsiderable side effect, according to many
modern technicians, will be the flood of brainpower released from
time-consuming chores and thus made available for more basic, creative
thought.
[Illustration: FIGURE 8.--The needs of tomorrow's spacemen will
lead to marked advances in human engineering and psychology.]
_Solid state physics_
Few areas of effort are advancing this extremely promising art faster
than space exploration, which places a premium on light weight and small
size. The miniaturization of equipment being placed in U.S. satellites,
for example, has been one of the contemporary wonders of the world of
science.
A big part of this march toward tiny equipment is in the field of
electronics, where the process is called microminiaturization, molecular
electronics, micromodular engineering or a number of other terms. In
essence it refers to the greatly reduced size of equipment through
"integrated circuits," coupled functions, the building of complicated
components into a single molecular design and so on.
The art has proceeded to the point where complete radios can be reduced
to the size of a lump of sugar.
Clearly, this trend holds almost unlimited utility for the home, the
factory, the marketplace, the highway, the hospital or just about any
other arena one cares to name. So great is the promise that virtually
every electronics company in the country is undertaking "to take the
state of the art into fundamentally new areas" and there exploit its
many possibilities.[41]