Long before the arrival of that millennium, however, the knowledge and
understanding awaiting us through the medium of space exploration is
certain to have profound effects on the human race psychologically and
spiritually.
It already has had effects on humans of all ages.
Adults, who are paying the taxes to support the space exploration
program and reaping its practical values, are also thinking of
themselves, their country, and their world in broader, more
knowledgeable terms.
In a sense, children may be even more deeply involved.
There is a special group which may play a useful role in spreading
the new values growing from the exploration of space, and this is
the children who play at spaceman today. Whether or not they take
this interest with them beyond childhood remains to be seen.
However, the unique fact in the present situation is that never
before have children rehearsed a role that really will not exist
until they are adults. To be sure all of them will not fulfill this
childhood role, but the fact that the reality lies ahead rather
than in the past (as with cowboys and Indians) may stimulate them
to retain a sensitivity for the various meanings man in space can
have for our future.[86]
Put it another way--if it is true, as a modern Chinese philosopher has
said, that the search for knowledge is a form of play, "then the
spaceship, when it comes, will be the ultimate toy that may lead mankind
from its cloistered nursery out into the playground of the stars."[87]
[Illustration: FIGURE 16.--Space vehicles of the future may
look like this artist's drawing of an electrical propulsion craft. The
nuclear reactor is located at the extreme left, followed by a neutron
shield, heat exchanger, gamma-ray shield and propellant. The center tank
houses turbogenerating equipment. Excessive heat is dissipated in the
large radiator. At the extreme right are two crew cabins, landing
vehicle and a ring-shaped accelerator.]