omy may not in itself be exceedinglyimpressive, though that same contribution determines thefortunes of the businesses involved in it. It is strengthening, nonetheless.NASA is mandated by Congress to promote the transferto the private sector of technologies developed in thecourse of aerospace research, and many of the technologiesthat make telemedicine possible were originally developedfor acquiring visual information from lunar and planetaryspacecraft (www.sti.nasa.gov).Though NASA might not be so willing to share withprivate industry all the technological advances theirbudgets allow them to achieve without the Congressionalmandate, the fact is that that mandate does exist, and NASAdoes comply. In addition, many of the NASA scientists arethe foremost in their fields of expertise and have a highlevel of interest in contributing the most good for the most people. Of course NASAs primary interest is a successfulspace program, but the technological strides they make areavailable for all of us who pay their bills.The nay-sayers are always with us, but theyconsistently refuse to examine the benefits we have alreadygained from this countrys space program. Those benefitshave hardly been touched on in a paper of this length: astudy of the robotics advances that prevent workers fromhaving to be exposed to hazardous environments or relievehuman counterparts from mindless, repetitious manufacturingprocesses has not even been addressed here. Neither hasbeen the invaluable military uses afforded by some of themany satellites now orbiting the earth (Anderson 19).There are more (and more) examples of the benefits weas a nation have realized from advances made by means of thespace program. All the benefits addressed here areliterally down-to-earth; not one mention has been made ofthe potentials we have reached in the actual environment ofspace itself....
