38 THE FIVE-YEAR OUTLOOK 



Because these problems are interdisciplinary and at the 

 frontier of interaction between the behavioral and infor- 

 mational sciences, there is a clear need to combine re- 

 search from both the psychological and computer sci- 

 ences. Research specialties that will be essential 

 elements in such interdisciplinary projects include human 

 factors, artificial intelligence, psycholinguistics. decision 

 analysis, communications theory, information manage- 

 ment, information display, human information process- 

 ing, human aptitudes, systems engineering, and manage- 

 ment science. 



Human factors engineering, which is concerned with 

 human performance implications for the design of hard- 

 ware, provides a final example of a behavioral research 

 effort supported by the Department of Defense. Research 

 objectives are; 



(1) To provide basic knowledge of the sensory, percep- 

 tual, cognitive, and response characteristics that un- 

 derlie task performance capabilities; 



(2) To translate task performance information into new 

 ways to interface man with his equipment; and 



( 3 ) To develop methods for assessing man 's contributions 

 to systems. 



Current research concentrates upon vision and visual 

 perception characteristics, neurophysiological metrics 

 (such as visual responses that indicate perceptual and 

 cognitive processes), information-processing principles 

 for man-computer interface design, decisionmaking in 

 command and control, and workload measurement 

 methodologies. 



REFERENCES 



1. See. for example, "Interview with Edward Teller," Military Sci- 

 ence and Technology, Vol. I, No. I (19801, pp. 38-47. 



2. National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Education. 



Science and Engineering Education for the 1980s and Beyond Wash- 

 ington, D.C.: U.S. Government Prmtmg Oftice, October 1980. pp. 

 24-31 and pp. 36-39. 



3. Ibid., pp. 58-61. 



4. Ibid., pp 45-52. • 



C. space 



The exploration of space has only just begun. Yet a wide 

 range of potential uses for space — for expanding knowl- 

 edge about the planetary system and the universe as a 

 whole, for solving problems on Earth, and for serving 

 national defense needs — have already been identified. 

 Reaping some of those potential benefits, however, may be 

 far off, since space missions require extensive develop- 

 ment programs and typically take several years from 

 conception to launch. Even after missions are launched, 

 they often need to be operative for several years before all 

 the results are clearly evident. Additionally, deriving so- 

 cial, political, or economic benefits from those results 

 requires that they be institutionalized into ongoing opera- 

 tional systems, and that, too, requires time. In that re- 

 spect, the situation is not much different from that in other 

 large-scale research and development programs, such as 

 those in energy, transportation, and health. However, 

 space exploration is still relatively novel, and our potential 

 capabilities in that area are expanding rapidly. For these 

 reasons we may still lack much of the experience required 

 to formulate precise long-range plans that can make the 



most effective use of the potentials of space. In other 

 words, we have to continue to invent the future as we 

 proceed. 



Space has been referred to as the new limitless ocean. 

 Given the historic impulse to explore, to understand, and 

 to control such uncharted regions, there is no doubt that 

 humans will seek to master space. The only questions are: 

 Who will explore space and reap its benefits? When will 

 the various phases of exploration and mastery occur? The 

 National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 and policy 

 decisions by successive Administrations have committed 

 the United States to leadership in space. Financial re- 

 sources in this area, however, as in all others, are limited. 

 Therefore, in order to ensure that the U.S. space program 

 constitutes a logical, efficient, and cost-effective se- 

 quence of activities that can take advantage of emerging 

 technological opportunities, space planning is carried out 

 with a very long ranging time perspective. Because of the 

 need for long-range planning, many of the activities dis- 

 cussed in this section, froin the study of concepts to the 

 employment of space systems, will not be completed for 



