What are the impacts of the space race?

Question

Has the space race affected society today?

Answer 1

not really

Answer 2

This is just my opinion. The "Space Race" has not effected society on the level of the drama of space travel, and all the fiction that that entailed in the past. The Space Race has cost USA too much money for the masses not to get dramatic over the ability to stabilize employment and erase poverty. The Space Race was a distraction in the 1960's from Racism, Female Degradation in the house and on the job, and from the pending catastrophic and apocalyptic doom that was on the horizon. O.K., we were distracted. The war ended. People sang songs of hope and went back to work. Nothing really materialized of all that fussing and protesting; dying and being killed, but Ronald Reagan for President, which should have been a joke, but wasn't. Now, its 2006. What about the Space Race? Guess what?! Its between your ears. What have you got in mind? How much is going to cost? Where's the money coming from? Where's the money going? Is this a diverse, integrated genuine operation, or is it a big expensive toy/game that we can play with while people struggle trying to live everyday and we are starting and fighting wars in many parts of the world, that are costing you don't even wanna know how much money. Are we have fun, yet? Have you got a plan? A real plan? Who are you going to send it to, to get it funded and who are your friends? (I sure hope you know Bill Gates, Carl Sagan or Stephen Hawkings.)

Answer 3

First, it gave us this incredible GOAL to reach for. If we didn't have the competition we would have sat on our butts.. I'm not kidding. I was a young kid during the 60's and remember hearing that the USSR (Soviets) had been the first to go into orbit.. I was mad! Then President Kennedy kicked it up a notch and said we would not only go into orbit ~ but go to the MOON! They almost landed on my birthday in 1969! Just a few days afterward. I was fortunate too.. a grandaughter of my neighbor was visiting a few months after that.. she gave me a "Mission Coin" for Apollo 11... Her father worked as a mission controller at Nasa (I lived in Florida at the time). I STILL have the coin and found out it was only given to those in Mission Control and ON the Apollo 11 mission. I have no clue what its worth now - its not even listed in coins that I can search out online. I'd never sell it though, too much sentimental value. The technologies we used in Space DID help society quite a bit. There are even newer technologies that are being used now that will help us later on. Many of those are still classified - the Space program is not such an open agency even though it looks like it. When I was in the Navy we used a number of things in the Intelligence field that the space program helped to bring about.. still cant talk about some of that though. Insulation in our homes (foil) is one of the biggies we take for granted. You can buy a similar thing in Walmart in sporting goods - the Thermal blanket! Its a reflective thin blanket to help in survival situations. Some of the radiant energy dissapation technologies helped fuel an industry now that is responsible for almost a BILLION + $$ a year.. Sunglasses! Some of the light technologies in GOOD sunglasses were started by NASA for the faceshield. I own a pair of Maui Jim's .. $289.00.. 7 layers of glass and rare earth minerals make up the lens. AWESOME glasses.. I've managed to keep them for 3 years now! A RECORD! Communications technologies and encryption. In my job with Naval Communications Intelligence we used many communications systems manufactured by honeywell.. our crypto for data-link was the same as what was developed for NASA and improved upon and adapted for Military use. We can also thank the space race for getting us going in regards to one of the most important of ALL inovations - Satelite communications! The list is just too long to even think about. And no.. I didnt Google ANYTHING.. "I Lived it" :) (Diddy - the guy who said "failed - report abuse" is an idiot)...

Answer 4

Certinly, after all, Tang, the astronauts miracle pen, and dehydrated ice cream all came from those efforts. The space race was a task that we as Americans had to stretch and push to win. The Russians no doubt developed some amazing technologies as well. It was no small feat to land a man on the moon or to put Mir into space. It was important because it forced science to push its limits.

Answer 5

The biggest effects are in the bits of technology we use every day. The space race was the impetus for technological development in everything from obvious things like propulsion and space-based weather prediction to things you wouldn't expect, like materials science (for example, the ceramics that go into home heaters), medicine, and food preservation. The desire for smaller, lighter computers for space vessels was a driving force (which influenced, but wasn't the only influence) for the development of microprocessor integrated circuits, which are found today in everything from iPods to toasters.