Exploring the Unknown - NASA's History Office

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OBSERVING THE EARTH FROM SPACE
tinuing active involvement in civil remote sensing.
c. Reduce some U.S. information costs. Civil remote sensing systems in a routine
operational mode may result in reduced data collection costs for some U.S. government,
State and local, and private information needs. Such possibilities can be
meaningfully explored only if U.S. policy calls for continuing active U.S. involvement
in civil remote sensing.
d. Contribute to general economic growth. The availability of civil remote sensing
data and its appropriate use in resource planning and other fields can be expected
to contribute to economic growth, especially in the less developed countries,
which should have a positive effect on general economic growth.
e. Return on space investment. Civil remote sensing is an area in which there are
opportunities for realizing returns, in the form of economic and other kinds of
benefits, on the very large national investment in space of the past two decades,
for relatively very small additional investments.
5. U.S. International Interests
a. Support of U.S. foreign policy. U.S. involvement in civil remote sensing from
space can provide opportunities and a vehicle for the support of many U.S. foreign
policy objectives. The strong interest of many foreign countries in earth
information derived by remote sensing, combined with the current U.S. leadership
role in providing such information and related services, make this an area of
positive potential in U.S. foreign relations.
b. Maintain U.S. leadership. Civil remote sensing is an area in which the U.S. has
developed and demonstrated a benign technology of obvious potential benefit.
Active continuing U.S. involvement—exploiting a dramatic space capability clearly
developed by the U.S.—would help maintain the fact and image of U.S. leadership
in space. Conversely, if other nations take over leadership in this field, the
overall leadership position of the U.S. would be impaired.
c. Support U.S. position with LDC’s. U.S. civil remote sensing activities can provide
a constructive way to support U.S. commitments of technology to assist less developed
countries. They can buttress the U.S. position in North/South dialogues, in
the U.N. and other forums. For example, initiatives involving civil remote sensing
might provide a constructive opportunity for U.S. leadership at the U.N. 1979
Conference on Technology for Developing Countries.
[7] d. Support international cooperation in space. U.S. commitments to service foreign
Landsat ground stations, while contractually limited to support from U.S. experimental
satellite systems, have resulted in foreign investments and expectations
based on the assumption that U.S. Landsat or other generally compatible satellite
data will continue to be available. It is generally in the U.S. interest to fulfill rather
than disappoint these expectations.
e. Promote openness. U.S. civil remote sensing policies and activities can be used to
support the general objective of treating open information as an international
good, and contribute to the development of international law to that end. They
can also continue to support the U.S. policy to preserve without limitation the
legitimacy of remote sensing from space, especially in the context of an active
U.S. effort to permit and help other countries share in the benefits.
f. General international cooperation. The development of international working
arrangements in the field of remote sensing from space can provide the U.S. with
useful opportunities to encourage international cooperative arrangements to
deal with broader international concerns. It also offers opportunities to innovate
in building international institutions to develop models of effective working bodies
that also meet requirements of participation and equity.