| Popis: |
The objective of this Aspen Conference is to explore the humanistic concerns of international cooperation, public participation, sociological impact, environmental impact, and commercialization of space activities in the next two decades. The space sciences bear directly on the first three aspects but only peripherally on the environmental and commercial concerns. The overall topic is one which has been largely ignored by the space science community although recent activity suggests an increasing awareness. To the degree that a dialog and consequent mutual understanding can be established between “humanists” and “scientists,” the better off will be world society. In that view, it is particularly timely to look at the relationship now-this kind of look has always been warranted but takes on special significance in view of an increasingly militaristic mentality developing in the United States and maybe in other countries. It is a fact of life that the space programs of all countries are intricately tied to actual or potential military uses. The relationship between civil and military programs can be one of mutual benefit but at the same time it has the potential for being destructive of efforts to foster global cooperation. In this paper, the results from space science investigations are not treated. Rather, I try to put space science into a general science context, show the relationship to applications programs, treat some political aspects which cannot be ignored, and then attempt to comprehend the humanist-scientist relationship. |
