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to the likelihood of oil reserves
being below. They found a very
large one in Alaska right next to the
early North Slope discovery. The
earth satellite also lends itself to
finding minerals, coal, etc. Geolo–
gists are making very good use of
the satellite. These are peripheral
areas, but are nevertheJess very im–
portanl.
Q .
Wbat about oceanography and
the mapping of ocean currents and
finding swarms of fisb?
FLETCHER:
Eventually, we will be
able to pick up swarms of fish di–
rectly. It's likely that we can pick up
plankton and phyto-plankton, a
special kind of plankton which is
primarily consumed by the little
fish. We have a specially designed
satellite to do that.
Q .
You mentioned the spiritual as–
pect of the space program. What is
the emotional, psychological impact
on astronauts living in space?
FLETCHER:
There doesn't seem to be
too much in the way of an emo–
tional, psychological impact in ac–
lually living in space. It's before and
after that you get the psychological
impact. Before, they Jook forward lo
a glorious experience.
In
fact, I had
one astronaut telJ me that even if he
didn't make it back, it would have
been worth it. It's a tremendous ex–
citement to see what's on the other
side of the hill.
Then coming back, they' re instant
heroes. Sorne of them have sorne
problems of adjustment to that kind
of a climate because they haven' t
been trained for that. Sorne of them
are a littJe bit bítter against NASA
for not having prepared them better
for being real live heroes. You
know, nobody's perfect, and these
people are no more or less human
than anybody else. Yet , they're out
where everybody can see them, and
the slightest error they make and
the slightes t tbing they say that's off
color - well, everybody notices.
And so, there is this kind of negative
psychological adjustment after–
wards.
While up there, they are so busy
PLAIN
TAUTH
January
1974
doing what they have to do that
they don't have time to think mucb
about the psychology of it.
Q .
Space Oight seems to leave a
definite stamp on the meo who have
retumed. Sorne of t hem become
more religious. Why does this ap–
pear to be so?
FLETCHER:
1 noticed the same thing.
Most of them just have thís
profound religious experience, par–
ticularly those who have gone to the
moon. 1
think
it has todo with look–
ing at the earth from a distance and
seeing how finite it is. There are no
geographícal boundaries up there,
and one wonders, how did
it
all get
started. They are profoundly
im–
pressed by it. I don ' t know of any
that aren't that way. They all would
claim that they have had a real spir–
itual experience.
Q .
Do you think t hat most people
are becoming somewhat blasé to
space achievement?
FLETCHER:
lt's hard to say most.
Certainly a large number have be–
gun to take it for granted. l t seems
too easy. They say, "Well, we've al–
ready done that ; let's do something
else now." In a way, you can't blame
them because we have been to the
moon. lt's a pretty hard act to fol–
low. After a while, people began to
lose a little bit of interest , and 1
can't blame lhem. We live in a
world in which you've gol to have
new thrills every minute.
Q .
ls it true, Dr. Fletcher, tbat
be–
cause of our successes, there
is
a
lagging in tecbnology in America
today?
FLETCHER :
Yes. We have over–
reacted to sorne of lhe technological
advances. People are beginning to
think that atomic energy, auto–
mation, etc. bave a dehumanizing
effect. ' 'Modern technology seems to
debumanize us. We aren't our own
masters anymore. We' re not indi–
viduals, and it's all the fault of tech–
nology." 1 think there was an over–
reaction of that kind in this country,
and we' re just beginning to come
out of it.
Even in Congress I noticed it.
Sorne of them think scientists are a
little bit strange, quarrelsome,
kooky, and so forth, and bave no
place in our society. My own feel–
ing, quite honestly, is that this is just
one of those waves that society goes
through which we'll weather. But ,
my prediction is that in ten years or
so, we' ll have a tremendous short–
age of scientists and engineers like
we did ten years ago.
Q.
Overall, looking over the space
program and acbievements that bave
been accomplished, wbat do you feel
tbe next ten or twenty-five years will
bring?
FLETCHER:
Up to the next ten years,
it will be mostly the exploiting of
what we've learned. We'll try to turn
what we've learned to man's benefit.
This includes everything leamed
from sateUites and so on .
The next ten years are a little bit
more uncertain. But if we can work
out worldwide cooperatíon - 1
mean by that the three major parts
of the world, the Soviet Union, the
U. S. and Europe - we might be
able to take a next step which would
be either to send men to Mars or to
establish bases on the moon. But 1
think the U. S. won' t attempt that.
That's too large an undertaking. If
we don't have international cooper–
ation, 1 don't think that will happen
until the end of the century.
Meanwhile, though (this is specu–
lation), we may decide to have a
worldwide effort to communicate
with other planets. 1 know this
seems far out at first, but right now
scientists are convinced that there
are other planets with intelligent life
on them.
We kind of hoped that there was
somebody on Mars and that turned
out not to be the case. We began to
feel lonesome, so when the possi–
bility of life out in the galaxy occurs,
people begin to say, "If there's com–
panionship out there, we ought to
somehow try to communicate with
them." lt's very early in the se–
quence, but there are a number of
scientists pursuing it. That would be
a fairly expensive program. O
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