Inspiration
Yuri Gagarin's flight changed everything. It began an era of space exploration that would inspire generations of people worldwide. The space race refers to the race between the USA and USSR for supremacy in human spaceflight. This competition made it partly a matter of national pride and spurred the USA to spend substantial amounts of money to achieve the goal of putting a man on Earth's moon. Just eight years later, millions watched as Neil Armstrong's famous first step was broadcast on television. However, this impact spread far beyond the national pride of the USA. It inspired thousands to study aeronautics, engineering, and physics.
While space exploration can cause people to reach for the stars, it can also inspire people to focus more on home. Many have commented that following the space race, humans finally had pictures of Earth as seen from the moon, which helped emphasize how small and potentially fragile our home is. It's no accident that the environmental movement became far more significant around the same time. Rather than looking towards exploration, some took the opportunity to focus instead on protecting what we have through natural conservation efforts.
Technological Advances
The space race also led to significant technological advances. NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the USA, developed all kinds of new technologies in order to put humans in space. Many of these technologies entered the public marketplace, which vastly altered society and culture worldwide. Advances in personal computers, space age fabrics, solar panels, freeze-dried food, memory foam, fire-fighting gear, and LED lights have significantly changed the daily life of millions of people around the world. Today we rely on many of the technological advances that came as part of space exploration.
The space race also improved our rocket technology, which has had a bigger impact on everyday life than one might think. By having more advanced space technology, large numbers of satellites were deployed. Today satellites are used for everything from communications and weather forecasting to measuring climate change and coordinating armed forces.
Despite budget cuts to NASA, space exploration still remains at the forefront of modern technology. Companies like SpaceX, which have taken on part of the mantle from NASA, are among the most innovative companies in the world, producing huge advances in green technology alongside their space program. In the future, it's expected that private companies and government agencies will work together to further space exploration.
Lesson Summary
So space exploration has had a big impact on culture and society. It's changed the way we look at ourselves and our place in the universe. Seeing Earth as a tiny object in space made a lot of people focus more on how to protect what we have on our home planet, igniting the environmental movement. Space exploration also inspired people to study aeronautics, engineering, and physics. Technologies that were developed during the space race led to the computer and electronics revolution in culture and society, which changed the everyday lives of millions of people. Space exploration may continue to change society in the future, likely through government agencies like NASA and private companies like SpaceX.
