Exploring the Unknown - NASA's History Office

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OBSERVING THE EARTH FROM SPACE
vide new or improved responses to hitherto inadequate service availability.
We consider that there are unique attributes of remote sensing systems, and that their
utility resides in a complex mix of: (1) direct benefits presumably quantifiable by
conventional cost benefit analysis, and perhaps less direct benefits accruing from
an increased tax base resulting from new ventures prompted by the availability of
remote sensing services and products; (2) general benefits for [9] better decision
making by informed societies; (3) the payoffs to the public good by basic investments
in information services; and (4) in some cases, by fundamental structural
changes in economic and social welfare not capturable [sic] by conventional cost
benefit analysis (e.g., here a general equilibrium approach is relevant, vice the simpler
and much less encompassing cost benefit assessments).
We believe that there is both merit in and opportunities for additional analyses by
which the utility, in the broadest sense, of remote sensing systems can better be
measured, particularly in the case of the latter three factors of the preceding paragraph.
For the immediate future, decisions to pursue remote sensing must in part
be founded on intuitively based social and political rationales. The current lack
of fully quantifiable utility assessments does not outweigh the preponderance of
evidence that remote sensing systems should be pursued.
4. Consequences of not continuing. The consultants have also considered the implications
of alternative U.S. policy attitudes, e.g., a decision not to continue indefinitely a U.S.
involvement in civil remote sensing or a decision to defer still longer the making of a decision
on a continuing future U.S. involvement.
a. A decision not to continue would mean loss of the benefits and opportunities that
are the basis of the favorable assessment given above. The consultants believe that
the potential of many of these benefits is widely recognized both in the U.S. and
abroad. Any U.S. policy implying or presaging U.S. withdrawal, now or in the
future, from an active role in civil remote sensing from space would undoubtedly
be met by the early development of foreign systems designed to meet U.S. as
well as foreign needs. The consultants believe that such a loss of benefits, opportunities,
and U.S. leadership is unacceptable.
b. A decision to defer a decision would permit further erosion of U.S. opportunities
and leadership and could lead to results like those cited immediately above. It
would also perpetuate the current unsatisfactory situation of general uncertainty
and generate further dissatisfaction in Congress and among State, local, private
and international users of remote sensing data from space. The consultants are
convinced that the time has come to make a positive decision.
5. Some concerns addressed. Two recurring concerns that have played a part in policy
consideration of the U.S. involvement in civil remote sensing need to be noted and discussed
briefly:
[10] a. Reliance on a market test of value. In the determination of the Executive Branch
policy toward U.S. involvement in civil remote sensing there has been a tendency
to judge the value of possible operational uses in terms of the willingness of the
user to pay for the establishment and operation of the system, and, therefore, to
defer a policy commitment to continuity of data services until the users are willing
and able to commit themselves to providing the funds required.
The logic and appropriateness of this approach have been criticized on many
grounds. Thus, it has been pointed out that in the private sector individual customers
are not expected to finance in advance the investment costs necessary to
produce a product or establish the capability for providing a service. It is also
pointed out that making data continuity dependent on demonstrated benefits
and user commitments to operational use tends to place the program in a “Catch
22” situation because of the lead times involved: the decision on data continuity
has to be faced before the demonstrations needed for a commitment have been