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Setting Priorities for Space Research: Opportunities and Imperatives (Chapter 5)
Setting Priorities for Space Research
Opportunities and Imperatives
5
Conclusion
Priorities are inevitable in such human endeavors as plotting the course
for a nation or disbursing or managing public funds. Implicitly or explicitly,
priorities are set. We need to create an orderly agenda for scientific research in
space, based on clearly defined objectives, in order to ensure that it flourishes
and contributes to national vitality and the public welfare. A consensus in space
research about what is truly most important will serve the best interests of both
science and the nation.
Priorities reflect aspirations and values. They are derived from recognition
of motivation and purpose. The governing concept of the space program was
created in the early years of spaceflight. Emphasizing flight to orbit, it
concentrates on expanding the domain in which humans have been present or
might maintain their presence. In its most elegant form, it declares that there is a
REPORT MENU human need to explore the universe. Within this context, the Apollo mission to the
NOTICE Moon was the greatest success the space program has ever had, for with Apollo
MEMBERSHIP humans left the Earth and traveled to a distant heavenly body for the first time.
PREFACE But humans also need to know and understand the universe. A fundamental
SUMMARY human imperative is not simply to explore, but to know. It is in search of
CHAPTER 1 knowledge and understanding that we traverse unfamiliar, often hostile, realms.
CHAPTER 2 The acquisition of information, the creation of knowledge, and the development of
CHAPTER 3 understanding are the objectives of scientific research in space and provide
CHAPTER 4 strong motivation and purpose for the broader space program. For, as Aristotle
CHAPTER 5
observed so long ago, "all men by nature desire to know." And thus a consensus
about priorities and an agenda for space research focusing on the most important
opportunities for new understanding will yield magnificent benefits for science
and for the nation.
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