Exploring the Unknown - NASA's History Office

ility in the [U.S. government].
(e) Definition of the optimum satellite system with respect to economic and other
considerations.
The [Office of Management and Budget] sponsored studies now under way may shed
some light on those matters. However, the level of development of application services is
so rudimentary at this time that much reliance will have to be placed on judgment—based
on experience with similar new technologies.
[10] ERS Applications
It seems likely that ERS applications will have several characteristics:
(a) Satellite data will usually have to be combined with data from many more conventional
sources before useful, commercially saleable [sic] results are obtained. Thus it
is unlikely that many applications will be found that do not require complex interfaces
with existing service organizations—both in the region under study and in the client’s
community.
(b) Exclusivity of the information product may be achieved through the quality of
interpretation and amalgamation with other data, but exclusivity based on primary
imagery requires either turning the satellite operation over to a private monopoly or finding
legal justification and an administrative mechanism for exclusive licensing of imagery
by the government. In any case, exclusivity is a will-o-the-wisp, since alternative platforms
exist for surveying most areas of interest, and primary imagery alone will often prove inadequate.
(c) Some applications may prove cost effective in the developing countries before
they do in the U.S., because of deficiencies in logistic and communications infrastructure,
extensive poorly studied areas, lack of institutional structures for ground-based data collection,
etc. (Flood management is an example.)
[11] (d) The most valuable applications are probably still undiscovered, and may depend
heavily on very sophisticated automated image processing. In general, the computing
requirements would appear to pose serious problems for developing countries and very
small organizations. A number of years of subsidized operations will probably be required
before commercial incentives will produce the required development investment.
Policy Issues
EXPLORING THE UNKNOWN 267
In light of this background, the policy issues requiring clarification are:
(a) What is the “critical path” impeding progress? Other than the obvious necessity
for a follow-on program to ERTS-1, which is inadequate in resolution, re-observation rate,
and is nearing end of useful life, it is experience in information extraction and use under
realistic economic conditions that is most needed. A follow-on experimental satellite is
well justified, and would permit several years of applications R&D, without which no viable
commercial activity can occur. Thus, end-user programs would appear to deserve government
priority. The second element in the critical path is the resolution of concerns of foreign
nations with respect to acquisition and dissemination of data.
(b) Is there a relationship between the well established acceptability of meteorology
satellites and the viability of Open Skies for ERS systems? U.S. policy in the meteorology
[12] field is firmly and necessarily committed to free international exchange, as well as
unilateral rights of observation. This is well accepted internationally because the benefits
to all depend on information interchange. Many ERS applications have a similar dependency
on global access, as well as exchange of “ground truth” data. If our ERS policy
moves away from commitments to international cooperation and disclosure of space data,
characteristics of most NASA programs to date, the possible impact on the U.S. weather