Cato speculate?

Thanks Jack,
I think this line could be very useful, and I want to encourage it so
here are some suggestions to further encourage discussion. One should
distinguish evolutionary changes from revolutionary changes. It is easier
(but not necessarily easy) to predict how existing industries and services
based on space technology will continue to improve in evolutionary ways with
incremental changes. Such things as weather forecasting, ocean
surveillance, navigation, communications, and so on. Also many sciences
such as astronomy, oceanography, geology, forest managements, high tech
farming (using GPS), and so on will continue to benefit. It is not easy to
make a real list of all of the industries which benefit from current space
technology, but it would be a service to make and distribute such lists.
Many new industries, such as those which now use GPS, will emerge. And the
military certainly has been a stimulus in this and other areas.
Revolutionary changes are much harder to predict, though SSI was founded to
promote some of them.
Sincerely, Jay Huebner

What will the impact of space development be on science and
technology? Why? How?

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Base your answers on however you define "space development". We all
have some appreciation of the commercial value of the space
environment and the industrial and economic impact the development of
that environment might mean to the human race. But specifically how
is space-based cosmology, for example, better (or worse) than
terrestrial cosmology? What other scientific disciplines will be
positively affected by the development of space? And how will
technological advances affect science in space?

Thanks.

Jack