May 6, 1970
Dear Sister Mary Jucunda:
Every day I receive many similar letters, but this one touches me the most because it comes from a compassionate and searching heart. I will do what I can to answer this question of yours.
First of all, allow me to express my deep respect to you and your brave sisters for dedicating yourselves to the noblest of human endeavors: helping your fellow human beings in distress.
In your letter, you asked me why I was spending billions of dollars on a voyage to Mars when there are still children on Earth who are threatened with death due to starvation. It was clear to me that you certainly didn't want the answer, "Oh, I didn't know before that there were little children dying of starvation, well, from now on, suspend all space programs until the children are fed." In fact, I was aware of the problem of starving children long before mankind was technologically advanced enough to dream of a trip to Mars. And, like many of my friends, I believe that this is the time to start the great expeditions to the Moon, Mars and even other planets. In the long run, I even think that space exploration is a better solution to the current crises facing humanity than the aid programs that are either debated and argued over year after year, or compromised and delayed.
Before I go into detail about how our space program is helping to solve crises on the ground, I'd like to tell a short true story. It was 400 years ago, and there was a count in a small town in Germany. He was a kind-hearted man who gave a large portion of his income to the poor of the town. This was very admirable because there were many poor people in the Middle Ages, and there were frequent outbreaks of plague that swept the country. One day the Count came across a strange man who had a workbench and a small laboratory in his house, and who worked hard during the day, and devoted a few hours of his time each evening to research. He ground small pieces of glass into lenses, then mounted the ground lenses in a mirror tube, with which he observed tiny objects. The Count was mesmerized by this never-before-seen invention that allowed him to magnify things. He invited the eccentric to live in his castle as the Count's protégé, and thereafter he could devote all his time to the study of these optical devices.
However, the townspeople were angry when they learned that the Count was spending money on such a weirdo and his useless contraptions. "We're still suffering from the plague," they complained, "and he's spending money on that idler and his useless hobbies!" The Count was unmoved when he heard this. "I will pick up as much as I can," he stated, "but I will continue to subsidize this man and his work, and I am sure that one day it will pay off."
As it turned out, his work (and the efforts of others during the same period) won a great reward: the microscope. The invention of the microscope led to unprecedented advances in medicine, and the resulting research and its results eliminated the plague and a number of other infectious diseases that ravaged much of the world.
The money that the Count spent in support of this research and invention, and the ultimate result of which was a great alleviation of human suffering, paid off far more than if it had simply been used to provide relief to those suffering from the plague.
We currently face a similar problem. The U.S. President's annual budget*** has $200 billion, which goes to health care, education, welfare, city building, highways, transportation, overseas aid, defense, environmental protection, science and technology, agriculture, and a host of other domestic and foreign projects. This year, 1.6% of the budget will be spent on exploring the universe, and this spending will go to the Apollo program, several other smaller projects covering astrophysics, deep space astronomy, space biology, planetary exploration engineering, earth resource engineering, and space engineering technology. To cover the costs of these space programs, the average U.S. taxpayer earning $10,000 a year would have to pay about $30 to space, leaving $9,970 for general living expenses, recreation, savings, other taxes, and other expenses.
Perhaps you're asking, "Why not take $5 or $3 or $1 of the $30 taxpayers pay for space and give it to hungry children?" In order to answer that question, I need to start by briefly explaining how our country's economy works, and how other countries are in a similar situation. The government consists of several departments (e.g., the Departments of the Interior, Justice, Health and Public Welfare, Education, Transportation, Defense, etc.) and several agencies (the National Science Foundation, NASA, etc.) that set annual budgets based on their functions and implement them rigorously in order to respond to the oversight of the Council of State, as well as deal with pressure from the budgetary authorities and from the President regarding their economic performance. Pressure from the budgetary departments and the President for economic efficiency. When funds are ultimately appropriated by Congress, they are used strictly for planned projects approved in the budget.
Clearly, the programs included in NASA's budget are aerospace-related. Budget items that are not approved by Congress are not funded, and naturally are not taxed, unless some other department's budget covers the item, using it to spend money that is not allocated to the space program. As you can see from this short note, in order to assist starving children, or to increase the amount of aid to foreign aid programs that the US already has, it is necessary to first have a budget proposed by the relevant department, and then approved by Congress.
Asked whether I agree with the government implementing a similar policy, my personal opinion is absolutely in favor. I don't mind at all paying a little bit more in taxes every year to help hungry children wherever they are.
I'm sure my friends would feel the same way. However, things can't be easily accomplished just by taking the voyage to Mars off the table. Relatively speaking, I even think that the space program can be used to contribute to the alleviation and eventual solution to the problem of poverty and hunger on Earth. The key to solving the problem of hunger has two parts: the production of food and the distribution of food. Food production involves agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries and other large-scale production activities that are efficient and productive in some parts of the world and grossly underproductive in others. The productivity of the land can be significantly improved through high-tech tools such as irrigation management, fertilizer use, weather forecasting, yield assessment, programmed planting, farmland selection, crop habits and timing, crop surveys, and harvest planning.
Artificial earth satellites are undoubtedly the most powerful tool for improving these two critical issues. In orbit far from the ground, satellites are able to scan large areas of land in a very short period of time, and can simultaneously observe and calculate a number of indicators needed for crop growth, soil, drought, rain and snow, etc., and can broadcast this information to ground receiving stations for further processing. It has been proven that satellite systems equipped with land resource sensors and corresponding agricultural programs, even the simplest models, can bring billions of dollars in annual crop production.
How to distribute food to those who need it is a whole other problem, one that hinges not on the capacity of ships but on international cooperation. The rulers of small countries were troubled by the importation of large quantities of food from large countries, and they feared that along with the food would come the influence of foreign powers on their dominance. I'm afraid that the problem of hunger can't be solved efficiently until the barriers between nations are bridged. I don't think the space program will work miracles overnight, but exploring the universe will help move the problem in a good direction.
Take the recent Apollo 13 accident as an example. When the cosmonauts were in the critical atmospheric re-entry phase, the Soviet Union shut down all broadcast communications within its borders in the same frequency bands used by the Apollo spacecraft in order to keep communications open. At the same time, ships were dispatched to the Pacific and Atlantic oceans in preparation for the first search and rescue efforts. If the cosmonauts' life capsules landed near a Russian ship, Russian personnel would rescue them as they would their own cosmonauts returning from space. Similarly, if a Russian spacecraft encounters a similar emergency, the United States will certainly not hesitate to provide assistance.
Increasing food production through satellite monitoring and analysis, and improving the efficiency of food distribution through better international relations are just two of the ways in which the space program is improving the quality of human life. I would like to describe two other important roles: advancing science and technology and improving the scientific literacy of a generation.
The Moon Landing Project required a level of precision and reliability unprecedented in history. In the face of such demanding requirements, we had to find new materials and methods; develop better engineered systems; use more reliable fabrication processes; make instruments last longer; and even explore entirely new laws of nature.
These same new technologies that were invented for the moon landings can also be used for engineering programs on the ground. Every year, roughly a thousand new technologies developed from the space program are used in everyday life to build better kitchen utensils and farm equipment, better sewing machines and radios, better ships and airplanes, more accurate weather forecasts and storm warnings, better communication facilities, better medical equipment, and even better everyday gadgets. Why, you may ask, was the life-support system for the astronauts' lunar module designed first, rather than the remote sign-monitoring device for heart patients built first. The answer is simple: when solving engineering problems, important technological breakthroughs don't come straight out of the box; they come from challenging goals that inspire a strong spirit of innovation, imagination and action, and the ability to integrate all of your resources.
Space travel is indisputably a challenging endeavor. The voyage to Mars does not provide a direct food solution to the problem of famine. However, it brings with it a wealth of new technologies and methods that can be used beyond the Mars program, which will yield many times the original cost.
In addition to new technologies, we need new advances in the basic sciences if we are to make life better and better for humanity. These include physics and chemistry, biology and physiology, and especially medicine, to look after human health and to deal with problems such as hunger, disease, contamination of food and water, and environmental pollution.
We need more young people to devote themselves to science, and we need to give more help to talented scientists who devote themselves to research. We need to have challenging research programs available at all times, and we need to ensure that they are adequately resourced. I would like to reiterate that the space program is a catalyst for scientific and technological progress, providing excellent and practical opportunities for academic research, including the study of the Moon and other planets, physics and astronomy, biology and medical sciences, among other disciplines, which has led to a steady stream of exciting research topics in the scientific community, which has allowed humanity to glimpse the immense beauty of the universe, and which has led to the emergence of new technologies and methods.
Of all the activities controlled and funded by the U.S. government, the space program is undoubtedly the most visible and controversial, even though it accounts for only 1.6 percent of the total budget and less than three-thousandths of one percent of the gross national product. As a driver and catalyst of new technologies, the space program conducts much of the basic science research and is destined to be different from other activities. In a sense, with its impact on society, the space program is comparable to the war effort of 3-4 millennia ago.
How many wars would be avoided if instead of competing with bombers and long-range missiles, nations competed with each other in the performance of lunar spacecraft! The clever victors would be filled with hope, and the losers would not have to suffer, no longer sowing seeds of hatred and bringing about wars of vengeance.
Although we carry out the space program to study things far away from the Earth, has extended the human vision to the moon, to the sun, to the planet, until that distant stars, but astronomers are concerned about the Earth, more than all of the above beyond the sky. The space program has brought more than just the improved quality of life provided by those new technologies; as the study of the universe deepens, the deeper our appreciation for the Earth, for life, and for humanity itself will grow. Space exploration makes Earth a better place.
The photograph sent with this letter is a view of the Earth taken by Apollo 8 in orbit around the Moon on Christmas Day, 1968. Of all the things that the space program has done, this photograph is perhaps the most valuable. It broadened the horizons of mankind, allowing us to visualize so well that the Earth is such a beautiful and precious island in a vast and infinite universe, while at the same time allowing us to realize that the Earth is our only home, and that to leave it is the barren and bleakness of outer space. No matter how limited people's understanding of the Earth was before this, and how insufficient they knew about the serious consequences of destroying the ecological balance. After the publication of this photo, there were more and more calls for people to face up to these serious problems in the face of the serious situations that humanity is now facing, such as environmental pollution, hunger, poverty, over-urbanization, food problems, water resources problems, population problems and so on. The sudden concern about their own problems cannot be said to be unrelated to these initial space exploration programs currently underway, and the new perspective it brings on humanity's own home.
Space exploration doesn't just give us a mirror to look at ourselves, it gives us new technologies, new challenges, a new spirit of enterprise, and a sense of optimism and confidence in the face of tough realities. I believe that what mankind has learned from the universe is a testament to Albert Schweitzer's famous quote, "I look at the future with anxiety, but with hope."
My sincerest respects to you and your children!
Sincerely yours,
Ernst Sturlinger
Associate Director of Science