Remembering the Space Age. - Black Vault Radio Network (BVRN)

Great (UNFULFILLeD) expeCtatIONS: tO BOLDLY GO Where NO 145
SOCIaL SCIeNtISt aND hIStOrIaN have GONe BeFOre
of space exploration and exploitation remains a signifcant, underappreciated
topic. the political economy of space remains based on the fact that the high
cost of reaching earth orbit and working in space continues to limit the players
in space to those who have deep pockets—primarily national governments and
large corporations (themselves often dependent upon government orders).
an aspect of the political economy of railroads Mazlish noted was that over
120 British Members of parliament served on railroad boards in 1872. any study of
the american political economy of space today would have to include fundraising
and other favors for the senators and representatives on the congressional
committees overseeing NaSa, the military, and, as former representative
randy Cunningham demonstrated, the intelligence community. 42
For hughes, historical awareness can sensitize the observer to future probabilities
and suggest questions. perhaps most importantly, what felds will
languish as a result of resources expended on space? Will the institutionalization
and reifcation of this knowledge create a momentum that will transfer
into other areas? What style will characterize engineers and scientists who have
learned to operate in space? 43 Four decades of experience should enable us to
now answer these questions.
economic historians robert Fogel and paul Cootner emphasized the need
to compare the costs of alternate approaches to accomplish similar work and
the fact that the full impact of the railroad took decades to emerge. 44 Drawing
on his 1964 Railroads and American Economic Growth, Fogel considered the main
question from an investment perspective: “Will the increase in national income
made possible by the space program exceed the increase in income that would
be obtained if the same resources were invested in other activities?” 45
viewing the railroad’s main efects as reducing transportation costs
of processes and activities already underway, Fogel suggested that the space
program would not revolutionize transport, generate transcendent inventions,
or expand access to knowledge. Instead, he postulated that the space program’s
most radical and important contributions may come from the knowledge gained
from exploration, exploration impossible without access to space. Unlike the
railroad, where transportation alternatives existed, rockets provided entrance
42 . Mazlish, “historical analogy,” p. 31.
43 . hughes, op. cit., p. 72.
44 . paul h. Cootner, “the economic Impact of the railroad Innovation,” in Bruce Mazlish, ed. The
Railroad and the Space Program. An Exploration in Historical Analogy (Cambridge, Ma: MIt press,
1965), pp. 112, 118.
45 . robert William Fogel, ”railroads as an analogy to the Space efort: Some economic aspects,”
in Bruce Mazlish, ed. The Railroad and the Space Program. An Exploration in Historical Analogy
(Cambridge, Ma: MIt press, 1965), p. 74. Fogel’s book was both groundbreaking, leading to
a Nobel prize in economics for Fogel in 1993, and a counterargument to Walt W. rostow’s
infuential concept of stages of economic takeof, The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist
Manifesto (Cambridge, Ma: Cambridge University press, 1960).