Exploring the Unknown - NASA's History Office

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SPACE AS AN INVESTMENT IN ECONOMIC GROWTH
[1] [handwritten note: “6/23/78”]
Technology Transfer White Paper
INTRODUCTION AND DEFINITIONS
• Technology
Technology is a term loosely applied to know-how, end products and even the benefits
of technology. Dictionaries and the aerospace industry define it effectively as knowhow
applied to practical purposes.
Technology is generally distinguished from basic (scientific) knowledge and from end
products and their uses, but there are important exceptions.
The Bucy report 1 defined technology as know-how for design, development, manufacturing,
quality control and testing, performance analysis, maintenance and repairs, etc.
Closely associated with such know-how may be instrumentation and basic knowledge necessary
to its use. However, basic knowledge is generally widely available and not restricted.
It therefore becomes of concern for the control or dissemination of technology only in
rare cases where fundamental knowledge is critical to its application and is new in character
or not yet generally known.
Thus, technology as used here refers primarily to know-how, supplemented as necessary
by the equipment and scientific knowledge required for its implementation—and all
at relatively sophisticated levels.
[2] • Technology transfer
Technology transfer is a term referring to all types of exchanges involving technology,
including both those that the nation takes pains to control or limit, and those which the
nation wishes to make (domestically and internationally). Thus, we have export licensing
regulations to prevent or condition the commercial transfer of certain non-military,
unclassified technologies and products abroad. We also have policies designed to encourage
transfers in the interest of US industry and government entities or in the interests and
support of developing countries and military allies. For the sake of clarity, the control of
transfer will be discussed separately from the encouragement of transfer.
• NASA’s charter
NASA’s charter (under Sec. 102 (c) of the Space Act) directs the agency “to contribute
materially to . . . the following objectives: . . .
(2) The improvement of the usefulness, performance, speed, safety, and efficiency of
aeronautical and space vehicles; . . .
(4) The establishment of long-range studies of the potential benefits to be gained
from, the opportunities for, and the problems involved in the utilization of aeronautical
and space activities for peaceful and scientific purposes
(5) The preservation of the role of the United States as a leader in aeronautical and
space science and technology and in the application thereof to the conduct of
peaceful activities within and outside the atmosphere.”
Thus, NASA is in effect directed to generate technology, so that the US will be a leader
in world aerospace technology, and to contribute to the utilization and application of that
technology.
[3] Section 203 (a) states that “The Administration, in order to carry out the purpose of
this Act, shall— . . .
1. An Analysis of Export Control of U.S. Technology—A DOD Perspective, A Report of the Defense Science
Board Task Force on Export of U.S. Technology, J. Fred Bucy, Jr., Chairman, February 4, 1976.