Exploring the Unknown - NASA's History Office

EXPLORING THE UNKNOWN 433
The major findings of the study follow:
1. NASA contributions to the advancement of major developments in the selected
fields of technology appear to be broader, more complex and more indirect than has been
realized to date. The number of NASA contributions that find direct nonaerospace applications
represent only a small fraction of the large number of contributions that advance
the state of technology in a field.
2. Ten dominant types of NASA contributions to the advancement of major developments
were identified. Individual contributions identified in this study embodied from
one to all ten types. The types include: developing new knowledge; developing new technology;
demonstrating the application of new technology for the first time; augmenting
existing technology; applying existing technology in a new context; stimulating industry
to acquire or develop new technology; identifying problem areas requiring further
research; and creating new markets. Certain types of NASA contributions appeared to be
more dominant in some fields of technology than in others.
3. The “significance” of most of the NASA contributions was to have caused the technological
advancement to occur at an earlier time than it would have occurred otherwise.
Significance of NASA contributions varied between fields of technology, with those fields
most closely identified with NASA missions, such as cryogenics and telemetry, having the
largest proportion of contributions leading to advancements that probably would not
have occurred without the NASA contribution.
4. The NASA contributions represented all levels of technology, including major
step-changes in technology, incremental advances in technology, and consolidations of
technology. Contributions that represented incremental or systematic advances in technology
were the most frequent type of contribution, followed by contributions that represented
a consolidation of knowledge. Contributions that represented major
step-changes were relatively infrequent. Wide differences in these different classes of contribution
to different fields of technology were found, depending upon the existing state
of technology in the field and NASA’s mission requirements.
[iv] 5. NASA contributions were found in all stages of developmental activity studied,
with more than one-half finding military or aerospace applications and almost one-quarter
finding commercial applications.
6. When impact was assessed on a linear scale of high, moderate or low, the technological
impact of the NASA contributions was estimated to be moderate-to-high, the
economic impact to be moderate, the scientific impact to be moderate-to-low, and the
direct social impact to be low, with impact varying widely between different fields. . . .
[25] III. MEASURING THE IMPACT OF NASA CONTRIBUTIONS
Measuring innovative activity is itself a formidable problem which has not been solved
to anyone’s satisfaction. Moving from a measure of this activity to a measure of economic
impact greatly increases the problem. Focusing the task on measurement of the economic
impact of NASA’s technological efforts reduces few problems and adds many. One
recent attempt to measure the overall economic impact of technological progress appears
to have met with some success. 1
1. Economic Impact of Stimulated Technological Activity. Part I: Overall Economic Impact of Technological
Progress—Its Measurement. Kansas City, Missouri: Midwest Research Institute, Final Report 7, April 1970–15 April
1971 (NASA Contract NASW-2030).