Exploring the Unknown - NASA's History Office

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SPACE AS AN INVESTMENT IN ECONOMIC GROWTH
technical advances from the industry, NASA should presumably leave those developments
to the industry. Where national considerations of safety, environment, or strategic competition
in the military or commercial fields becomes critical, or where the cost, risk and
facilities for technical advance are beyond industry’s capacity in a competitive system,
NASA as the government’s agent must consider filling the gap.
In sum, it is difficult to conceive of a very different role for NASA than its traditional
one in the development of aeronautical technology; however, its transfer to industry and
defense must be responsive to national needs and international pressures on US industry.
Fine tuning of the operating policies, of course, is always appropriate. Major innovations
may be required for one-of-a-kind situations.
– Space applications. The principal options are to leave the development of supporting
and advancing technologies to operational interests once the operational stage is
reached or, in the alternative, to continue technology development in some degree. What
technology should NASA generate for transfer to the commercial sector? If a commercial
industry exists, should we consider any further development?
The communications field provides a useful example. It is clear that the operational
interests are indeed carrying forward R&D for much of their needs, thereby removing justification
for government R&D in those particular areas. But there are public interest
areas where the private sector may have no motivation to do R&D. In communications
these areas include technological developments for conserving the spectrum and also for
conserving the use of the geosynchronous orbit.
[17] It would therefore seem that NASA should consider continuing its R&D program
(including test and demonstration projects) in such areas. These programs in the communications
area should be carefully and narrowly defined. A positive answer should be
contingent upon thorough advance discussion with those government agencies and
potential user communities which may have real or fancied concerns in a given area to
develop the necessary degree of support. Cost-benefit considerations should be included
but (a) will often be very difficult to measure for not-yet-existing applications, and
(b) should not necessarily be determinative in public interest areas in any case, since
intangible values may be of overriding importance.
Where NASA itself may be given operational responsibilities for space applications, as
could occur in the Landsat program, NASA would, of course, determine the R&D requirements
to meet the needs of the user agencies, working in conjunction with them.
– Technology utilization, ASVT programs. The major options are to run a push program
or a pull program. In either case, NASA must, under the terms of the Space Act, be prepared
to transfer technology to public and private interests of this country in the most
effective and appropriate way, whether for space or non-space applications. NASA’s experience
to date seems abundantly clear that technology transfer is a sometimes slow and
difficult-to-measure process. Energetic measures can be taken to speed-up the process by
identifying possibilities, bringing them to the attention of possible users, organizing a body
of data, establishing a retrieval system and, in many cases, testing and demonstrating the
applications. This is particularly true for the public sector (cities and states, e.g., and other
government agencies) where non-space needs may be strongly felt but the expertise required
for adaption [sic], test, demonstration and implementation may be entirely lacking.
At the same time, experience also suggests that the dangers of internal enthusiasms
for applications in fields outside the agency’s experience and expertise dictate some measure
[18] of conservatism. It would seem, therefore, that the agency should continue substantially
along its present course but with greater visibility for management for the many
non-space applications explored and tested.
This means that both headquarters and centers should continue their initiatives and
responses but that a system should be established to permit parallel awareness of specific