The psychological and spiritual changes necessitated by this evolution
may be at a cost far beyond dollars--because many of us will be hard put
to negotiate them, especially if they come too rapidly.
Nevertheless, negotiating them must also be placed in the category of
"practical" values--for in the long run it seems to be an essential part
of the maturing of mankind.
The years ahead will face us with many sputniks and thereby will
require of our citizens stern, costly, and imaginative
participation in programs to meet and surmount the many complex
challenges with which our growing technology confronts us. To
succeed in space and to succeed on Earth, we must somehow learn to
make the larger world of ideas, so brilliantly exemplified by the
satellites, the immediate environment of the individual. There is a
race we must run--the race for an enlightened and involved
public.[88]
So if we can accept the wrenches which space exploration is apt to apply
to our time, pocketbook, energy, and thinking, the values and rewards as
outlined in this report should gather headway and grow continuously
greater.
Space technology is probably the fastest moving, typically
free-enterprise and democratic industry yet created. It puts a
premium not on salesmanship, but on what it needs
most--intellectual production, the research payoff. Unlike any
other existing industry, space functions on hope and future
possibilities, conquest of real estate unseen, of near vacuum
unexplored. At once it obliterates the economic reason for war, the
threat of overpopulation, or cultural stagnation; it offers to
replace guesswork with the scientific method for archeological,
philosophical, and religious themes.[89]
Such conclusions seem a bit rosy. But sober study indicates that they
may not be too "far out" after all.