In the sixteenth century, King Philip of Spain sparked one of the greatest ages of discovery in human history, expanding and mapping previously unexplored parts of the world. This resulted in the broadening of humans understanding of the world. The common anecdote of this time period is that the great explorers of this time were motivated by three things, gold, God, and glory. It is now over four centuries later and the seas and terrain have since been mapped. With little left to be found on Earth, man has turned his head upwards into the final frontier, space. However, while the destination has changed, for the most part the reasons have not. The Spanish sought gold, which could be understood more broadly as economic return off their ventures.
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When attempting to create something never before made it is obvious that new and unique problems will arrive which require new and unique solutions. NASA, the largest space program in the world, makes, “Each year, more than 1600 [space technologies]” (Bolden, 7). These innovations, apart from being useful in space have resulted in many lucrative spinoffs. “NASA spinoffs enhance many aspects of daily life, including health and medicine, transportation, public safety, consumer goods, energy and environment, information technology, and industrial productivity” (Häuplik-Meusburger, 126). NASA spinoffs have grossed billions of dollars with a few of the most lucrative being, the Super Soaker water gun doing over 200 million in sales, Tempur-Pedic’s memory foam which has grossed over 1.4 billion dollars and invisalign braces which have grossed over 4.4 billion dollars. Other technologies can be directly applied. The evolutions to technology space exploration creates, become applicable to other industries improving them in ways they could never had done themselves. In 2013 a report was released showing 14 of NASA’s technologies currently in development, that, while being developed for space use would have socio-economical impacts ranging from “safer more efficient fuels” to wireless chargers (The Tauri Group, 5). Another way in which Space exploration stimulates growth is through the outsourcing of manufacturing. Outsourcing allows space programs to contract labor to manufacture items without having to build the infrastructure themselves. In this way it creates jobs and places money directly into the private sector. In 2013, NASA reportedly spent 5.8 billion on outsourced manufacturing putting it in the top five subsectors of U.S. manufacturing. They work with over 40,000 contractors and 1.2 million civil scientists. Apart from making jobs for private
When attempting to create something never before made it is obvious that new and unique problems will arrive which require new and unique solutions. NASA, the largest space program in the world, makes, “Each year, more than 1600 [space technologies]” (Bolden, 7). These innovations, apart from being useful in space have resulted in many lucrative spinoffs. “NASA spinoffs enhance many aspects of daily life, including health and medicine, transportation, public safety, consumer goods, energy and environment, information technology, and industrial productivity” (Häuplik-Meusburger, 126). NASA spinoffs have grossed billions of dollars with a few of the most lucrative being, the Super Soaker water gun doing over 200 million in sales, Tempur-Pedic’s memory foam which has grossed over 1.4 billion dollars and invisalign braces which have grossed over 4.4 billion dollars. Other technologies can be directly applied. The evolutions to technology space exploration creates, become applicable to other industries improving them in ways they could never had done themselves. In 2013 a report was released showing 14 of NASA’s technologies currently in development, that, while being developed for space use would have socio-economical impacts ranging from “safer more efficient fuels” to wireless chargers (The Tauri Group, 5). Another way in which Space exploration stimulates growth is through the outsourcing of manufacturing. Outsourcing allows space programs to contract labor to manufacture items without having to build the infrastructure themselves. In this way it creates jobs and places money directly into the private sector. In 2013, NASA reportedly spent 5.8 billion on outsourced manufacturing putting it in the top five subsectors of U.S. manufacturing. They work with over 40,000 contractors and 1.2 million civil scientists. Apart from making jobs for private