Most of the impacts are tangible and for all, or nearly all, to see and experience in their daily lives, but I should like to draw attention to two less visible impacts.
Firstly I believe that space activities have had a tremendous influence on society by providing the opportunity for nations all over the world to work together on complex and peaceful projects, the complexity of which has never before been seen. In this way an experience was developed in handling large projects which previously simply did not exist, and which is now serving in many other –non-space – areas. So far as Europe is concerned, I would go further, and say that this participation in large space projects –both manned and unmanned - has been a potent unifying factor. Although there is some way still to go before there is a really united Europe, working together on space projects has certainly been one of the major positive influences.
Secondly I believe that it has inspired large numbers of engineers, scientists ( and even administrators) to give of their very best, thereby providing role models worthy of being copied in many other fields. There has been no major space project which does not owe its success to the near super-human efforts of a small group of men and women.
Intangible though both of these impacts are, I believe that they are of great significance, and deserve to be measured along with all the other more obvious impacts.
Dr.
Roy
Gibson
First and former Director General of the European Space Agency
First and former Director General of the British National Space
Professional Category:
Government
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