Motivations for space activity
Although the possibility of exploring space has long excited people in many walks of life, for most of the latter 20th century and into the early 21st century, only national governments could afford the very high costs of launching people and machines into space. This reality meant that space exploration had to serve very broad interests, and it indeed has done so in a variety of ways.
Government
space programs have increased knowledge, served as indicators of national
prestige
and power,
enhanced
national security and military strength, and provided significant benefits to the general public. In areas where the private sector could profit from activities in space, most notably the use of
satellites
as
telecommunication
relays, commercial space activity has flourished without government funding. In the early 21st century,
entrepreneurs
believed that there were several other areas of commercial potential in space, most notably privately funded space travel.
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Famous Astronauts and Cosmonauts
In the years after
World War II
, governments assumed a leading role in the support of research that increased fundamental knowledge about nature, a role that earlier had been played by universities, private foundations, and other nongovernmental supporters. This change came for two reasons. First, the need for complex equipment to carry out many scientific experiments and for the large teams of researchers to use that equipment led to costs that only governments could afford. Second, governments were willing to take on this responsibility because of the belief that fundamental research would produce new knowledge essential to the health, the security, and the
quality of life
of their citizens. Thus, when scientists sought government support for early space experiments, it was forthcoming. Since the start of space efforts in the
United States
, the
Soviet Union
, and
Europe
, national governments have given high priority to the support of
science
done
in and from space. From modest beginnings, space science has expanded under government support to include multibillion-dollar exploratory missions in the solar system. Examples of such efforts include the development of the
Curiosity
Mars
rover, the
Cassini-Huygens
mission to
Saturn
and its moons, and the development of major space-based astronomical observatories such as the
Hubble Space Telescope
.
Soviet leader
Nikita Khrushchev
in 1957 used the fact that his country had been first to launch a
satellite
as evidence of the technological power of the Soviet Union and of the superiority of
communism
. He repeated these claims after
Yuri Gagarin
’s orbital flight in 1961. Although U.S. Pres.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
had decided not to compete for
prestige
with the Soviet Union in a space race, his successor,
John F. Kennedy
, had a different view. On April 20, 1961, in the aftermath of the Gagarin flight, he asked his advisers to identify a “space program which promises dramatic results in which we could win.” The response came in a May 8, 1961, memorandum recommending that the
United States
commit to sending people to the
Moon
, because “dramatic achievements in space…symbolize the technological power and organizing capacity of a nation” and because the ensuing prestige would be “part of the battle along the fluid front of the cold war.” From 1961 until the
collapse of the Soviet Union
in 1991, competition between the United States and the Soviet Union was a major influence on the
pace
and content of their space programs. Other countries also viewed having a successful space program as an important indicator of national strength.
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Even before the first satellite was launched, U.S. leaders recognized that the ability to observe military activities around the world from space would be an asset to national security. Following on the success of its photoreconnaissance satellites, which began operation in 1960, the United States built increasingly complex observation and electronic-intercept
intelligence
satellites. The Soviet Union also quickly developed an array of
intelligence satellites, and later a few other countries instituted their own satellite observation programs. Intelligence-gathering satellites have been used to verify arms-control agreements, provide warnings of military threats, and identify targets during military operations, among other uses.
In addition to providing security benefits, satellites offered military forces the potential for improved communications, weather observation, navigation, timing, and position location. This led to significant government funding for military space programs in the United States and the Soviet Union. Although the advantages and disadvantages of stationing force-delivery weapons in space have been debated, as of the early 21st century, such weapons had not been
deployed
, nor had space-based antisatellite systems?that is, systems that can attack or interfere with orbiting satellites. The stationing of weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on celestial bodies is prohibited by
international law
.
Governments realized early on that the ability to observe Earth from space could provide significant benefits to the general public apart from security and military uses. The first application to be pursued was the development of satellites for assisting in
weather forecasting
. A second application involved remote observation of land and sea surfaces to gather imagery and other
data
of value in crop forecasting, resource management, environmental monitoring, and other applications. The U.S., the Soviet Union, Europe, and
China
also developed their own satellite-based
global positioning systems
, originally for military purposes, that could pinpoint a user’s exact location, help in navigating from one point to another, and provide very precise time signals. These satellites quickly found numerous civilian uses in such areas as personal navigation, surveying and cartography, geology,
air-traffic control
, and the operation of information-transfer networks. They illustrate a reality that has remained constant for a half century?as space capabilities are developed, they often can be used for both military and civilian purposes.
Another space application that began under government sponsorship but quickly moved into the private sector is the
relay
of voice, video, and data via orbiting satellites.
Satellite telecommunications
has developed into a multibillion-dollar business and is the one clearly successful area of commercial space activity. A related, but economically much smaller, commercial space business is the provision of launches for private and government satellites. In 2004 a privately financed venture sent a piloted spacecraft,
SpaceShipOne
, to the lower edge of space for three brief suborbital flights. Although it was technically a much less challenging achievement than carrying humans into orbit, its success was seen as an important step toward opening up space to commercial travel and eventually to
tourism
. More than 15 years after SpaceShipOne reached space, several firms began to carry out such suborbital flights. Companies have arisen that also use satellite imagery to provide data for business about economic
trends
. Suggestions have been made that in the future other areas of space activity, including using resources found on the
Moon
and near-Earth
asteroids
and the capture of
solar energy
to provide
electric power
on
Earth
, could become successful businesses.
Most space activities have been pursued because they serve some utilitarian purpose, whether increasing knowledge, adding to national power, or making a
profit
. Nevertheless, there remains a powerful underlying sense that it is important for humans to explore space for its own sake, “to see what is there.” Although the only voyages that
humans
have made away from the near
vicinity
of Earth?the
Apollo
flights to the Moon?were motivated by
Cold War
competition, there have been recurrent calls for humans to return to the Moon, travel to Mars, and visit other locations in the solar system and beyond. Until humans resume such journeys of exploration, robotic spacecraft will continue to serve in their stead to explore the solar system and probe the mysteries of the universe.