How did competition between the Soviet Union and the U.S. improve science and technology?

Question

I'm curious because I have to write an essay on it and I thought about the question and all I could think of was plain out competition. If you want to beat the other guy then you have to be better and push forward in technology and science.
I've noticed that my teacher was mainly referring to Space and spacecraft.
What are your thoughts on this?

Answer 1

The USA got a big wake up call on October 4, 1957 when the first satellite was launched, touching off what became the Space Race. As it went overhead, it gave off a distinctive beeping sound heard on radio and television as a reminder of its presence. It reminded the USA that there was another major World Power and that we had fallen behind.

Soon afterward, the Soviet Union put a dog into space, the name of the dog was Laika. Kept secret from the world was that the dog suffered a painful death but not until the propagand value had been achieved.

An interesting site that describes our reaction is:

http://www.batnet.com/mfwright/sputnik.html

A site that tells you about Laika is here:

http://www.space.com/news/laika_anniversary_991103.html

Because of the space race, new and exciting technologies soon dominated our everyday lives, our industries and scientists, including those from former Nazi Germany, met the challenge. The developer of the V-1 and V-2 rockets used against England during WWII, Dr Werner Von Braun became one of our leading rocket scientists.

There was so much more to the space race than just getting satellites into orbit, the sciences of telemetry, propulsion, metals, ceramics, miniaturization, fabrics and so many more were unanticipated side benefits which we all use on a daily basis.

So it's difficult to say that we spent a lot of money "just for" because the leap forward in scientific discoveries unearthed so many practical and useful benefits

If I don't stop here, your essay will be almost done.

Answer 2

Well our space effort is a better way than war don't u agree. When we don't have competition we are destiny to failure. We are ahead of the Russians in most things ,but they are good in some ways . It is like being lost in the African jungle and u come across an African from the bush ,will u be better off to consolidate with hem until u get out,we all have our strengths.

Answer 3

The biggest technological advances in history are due to war... Man trying to best his opponent - and with good reason: until recently, losing a war meant enslavement, or extinction. If you had a weapon that allowed you to win, you survived.

Space flight is very similar. Both parties were trying to outdo the other, especially in the race to land on the moon. If you'll note - once we "won".... we let off the gas, and now our space program (and the advancements we owe to it) have slowed drastically. It's a shame - it's too bad we can't race other country (or group of countries) to Mars.