Evolution of Remote Sensing and National Security
A study performed for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) “chronicles the policy history of civil and commercial remote sensing from 1960 through 2008.”
The study “highlights the difficulties in establishing a consistent government role in a field where public good and private profit exist side-by-side, and where business interests have the potential to contribute to and conflict with national security interests.”
See U.S. National Security and Economic Interests in Remote Sensing: The Evolution of Civil and Commercial Policy by James A. Vedda, The Aerospace Corporation, February 20, 2009.
The unclassified study was released yesterday by NGA three years after it was requested under the Freedom of Information Act.
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The human cost is measured in deaths. The financial cost is measured in the $52 billion taxpayers pay annually end stage renal disease – double NASA’s budget.
Gilman Louie, Longest Serving Board Chair of the Federation of American Scientists, Named Chair Emeritus
The proposed Office will resurrect the long-closed Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), the archive of which has been maintained by FAS for decades at https://ota.fas.org/.