Social Intelligence Report
Public attitudes to space and satellites
An update to the report ‘Public views on the commercial application of Space’
(2013), reviewing information available at the time of writing, January 2016.
• Executive Summary
Space and satellite technologies are
developed for space exploration,
spaceflight, or communication
through space. They include many
commonly used technologies such
as GPS, telephone and internet
connections, satellite television, aerial
mapping and remote sensing.
• This report is an updated version for 2016, but there has been no new research into the
public’s attitudes to space and satellites in the last few years.
Space technologies have been
identified as one of the Eight Great
Technologies by the Department of
Business, Innovation and Skills, which
states:
• They have a strong desire to understand and contribute to decisions on the role of
advanced space technology.
“There is a surge in data coming
from satellites which do not just
transmit data but collect data by earth
observation. We have opportunities
to be a world leader in satellites and
especially analysing the data from
them.” (Willetts, 2013)
• The UK’s involvement in space exploration, including astronaut Tim Peake joining the
International Space Station, may cause a change in public attitudes that should be
investigated.
• Data from surveys in the original report shows that the public’s attitudes to satellites and
the commercial applications of space technology are generally positive, with uncertainty
about the future financial benefit.
• People are ambivalent towards the UK’s development of the space industry, but generally
support space exploration and developing space-related technologies.
• Space exploration and tourism are viewed as having great potential to enthuse the UK
about science and technology.
• People are less certain about use of space for novel military purposes, as well as how the
commercialisation of space will be funded, and the economic benefits. The prospect of
mining minerals from space is rejected as inappropriate and too speculative.
• People strongly support more education and engagement on space technologies, and
desire more public involvement in developments.
• Further policy should be based on public opinion, and consultation is advised.
•
Introduction
The UK is a world leader in space technologies and the UK
Space Agency has predicted future areas of growth to include:
international telecommunications and navigation services;
information systems to support carbon trading; surveillance of the
hazards threatening space infrastructure; innovative launch systems;
services to support space exploration; and space tourism.
The UK space industry is estimated to have supported 106,300 jobs
in 2012/13, and to be worth approximately £10.8 billion in GDP (UK
Space Agency, 2014). The UK is a key player in global space research
and is the second largest publisher of space research papers
worldwide (BIS, 2010).
In 2015, space exploration had particular prominence in the UK, as
the Principia Mission to the International Sace Station made TIm
Peake became the first British ESA astronaut.
This has led to increased public interest in space, and so it is timely
to understand what we now about public opinion on space and
satellites. Since Sciencewise first gathered the existing evidence
on public opinion in 2013, a small number of reports have been
published. We have revised the text of the 2013 ‘Public Views on the
Commercial Application of Space’ report (Sciencewise, 2013), adding
new evidence, and highlighting gaps in our current knowledge,
which research could usefully address to inform policy.
Public views
Awareness of the institutions and applications of space is mixed. An
opinion poll was carried out in 2009 by Ipsos MORI, with the aim of
investigating the public’s awareness of space (BIS, 2010). It found
that only 5% of respondents could reference the British National
Space Centre (BNSC) as the responsible body for space activities in
the UK. Most people associate space with manned space missions
and over half the respondents were unsure whether the UK had any
space industry.
A relatively high proportion (81%) of the public knew that weather
forecasting is made possible by space technology, but only 47%
knew that Sky News uses space technology. Less than a quarter
(22%) of participants thought that bank transactions are helped by
space technology, and just 7% thought space technology is involved
with delivering the National Lottery Results.
At the beginning of the ESA’s citizen’s jury in 2006 (Safwat, Stilgoe,
and Gillinson, 2006), participants illustrated their perceptions of
‘space’. The participants drew rockets, planets and aliens, with no
inclusion of satellites, televisions or the space-related technologies
we rely upon. On the second day, after several talks from space
professionals, the younger participants who had not seen the live
Apollo Moon landings revealed that they felt as if space exploration
“had skipped my generation”. “On a day-to-day basis, I don’t really
think about space” was a comment from one participant.
There was the feeling among the participants that the European
Space Agency (ESA) does not make enough effort to interact with
the public and that people are interested in space, but are no longer
engaged with the area. Overall, the participants agreed that only
an informed public could be expected to provide a useful input
into the future of space, while an uninformed public could not. The
participants emphasised the importance of educating the public
on space exploration, and that polling the public with their present
level of understanding would be of limited value. They summarised
that to have an opinion on space exploration, an interest in space
exploration and a certain level of understanding is required.
The UK’s role in space
A small majority feel space exploration in general is important. Over
half of participants in a 2013 YouGov survey of 1,825 adults thought
space exploration was ‘important’ (53%). Slightly less thought that it
was ‘not important’ (43%) (YouGov, 2013). However, a more nuanced
situation arises when people are specifically asked about the UK’s
involvement. 44% thought that it was a good idea for the UK to have
a space programme, with 34% disagreeing and 22% unsure.
Support grows in response to specific space programmes. A 2005
poll by the BBC tested public opinion on a potential UK astronaut
programme that would require £150 million in funding. 61%
of participants supported the venture, while 26% did not (BBC,
2005). Views were expressed on how young people have become
disconnected from science and how space exploration could arouse
new interest. Any concerns mentioned were related to the cost of
space exploration, rather than other issues such as religious beliefs or
because they thought it wasn’t useful.
Support for human spaceflight to achieve scientific goals had even
greater support in a 2007 poll of 460 Royal Astronomical Society
(RAS) Fellows, with 442 supporting the idea (RAS, 2007).
There is a small amount of information available on public responses
to satellite and other unmanned space technology. A Sciencewise
dialogue on space weather found that participants would support
satellites to monitor the sun, which would provide warning of solar
events that might affect technology on earth. Participants also felt
that a satellite, with regular updates would promote awareness of
space weather and its potential impact (Sciencewise, 2015).
Many believe that the space sector would become more popular in
future. In 2012, The Engineer reported a poll that identified how the
public perceived the space industry would develop in the future.
40% of participants believed that the space sector will become
better known to the public and 37% thought that the space sector
would receive more funding in the future. Just 8% believed it would
help the UK space industry to receive more funding, and 15%
stated that an increase in space funding would have limited impact
(Nathan, 2012).
Financing space
Public awareness of the way space exploration is funded is poor.
Participants in a citizen’s jury organised by the European Space
Agency in 2006 were unaware of UK contributions to the ESA. They
felt that the Government had a duty to make the public more aware
of these costs when they are covered by the taxpayer. Concerns
arose regarding the contributions that the UK makes to the ESA
and whether they are compulsory for all EU countries, and whether
the influence of the UK in the ESA is dependent on the amount of
funding it commits.
Comments included: “Are we just funding someone’s expensive
hobby?”, “I always thought these things were funded by the defence
budget” and “we need to know why we’re spending all that money
up there”. Overall, twice as many participants thought that UK space
funding should not be increased compared to those that did.
Participants were asked which areas of space they would choose to
fund themselves. The results are illustrated in Figure 1.
A slightly larger group of young people think space should get more
investment. A project for the Nestlé Social Research Programme
sampled 1,058 young people aged between 11 and 21 from schools,
colleges, universities and those not in education (Ipsos, 2004). The
results showed that 36% of young people thought more money
should be spent on space exploration, 27% thought that less money
should be spent, 27% thought that the same money should be spent
and 7% had no opinion or didn’t know.
Figure 1. Responses to the question ‘Do you think it is a good
or bad idea for the UK to have a space programme, as found by
YouGov (2013)
Public attitudes to space and satellites
When asked if the UK should fund research specifically to search
for life on other planets the results were similar to the responses on
funding general space exploration.
March 2016
The study established that 35% of the public surveyed wanted to
travel to space and 24% remained undecided (Barrett, 1999).
The most enthusiasm for space tourism was seen in the youngest
age group with 70% of 10 to 19 year olds stating that they would
like to undertake space travel. Most respondents (40%) thought that
£700 was the maximum they would spend on traveling to space,
while 12% (which represented 3.5 million people) were prepared
to pay £8,500. Study participants ranked viewing Earth as the most
popular reason for travelling to space.
Many would like to travel to space as a tourist. In 2012, YouGov
asked the public ‘Given the chance, and if all expenses were paid for,
would you go into space?’ (YouGov, 2012). Most people agreed that
they would like to travel to space and left comments such as “always
dreamed of going to space” and “seeing Earth from so high up would
be the most special thing about the experience”.
Figure 2: Areas in space that participants at the ESA’s citizen’s jury
would choose to fund. (ESA 2006)
On satellite technology, there is limited evidence on how the
public view Sciencewise space weather dialogue found that while
participants did support some public money going to monitoring
satellites, they also felt that industry should provide financial support
to match public funding (Sciencewise, 2015).
Military use of space
The military is dependent upon space and the potential
developments in that area. The role of the military in space has long
been subject to debate and in 2012 a number of media articles
considered the military and its activities in space (Oliphant, 2013; ITV
News, 2012; Telegraph, 2012; Amos, 2012; BBC, 2012). There has been
little activity in public dialogue surrounding military applications of
space and space technologies over the past few years.
In a 2004 poll of 1,000 British adults, just over half (56%) agreed
that space should be a neutral place with no military uses. However,
participants’ views were dependent on the type of military use of
space. 79% of the same group of people felt that the military’s use
of navigation and communication systems in space was acceptable,
but actual weapons should not be used. Approximately half (51%)
agreed that military use of space would be acceptable, but only
for countries defending themselves, and not for attack. A high
proportion (76%) of the public felt that military use of space was
acceptable providing it was used for international partnerships such
as NATO, rather than by individual countries.
The poll also revealed that 80% of the British public would favour the
USA exploring space as part of an international effort. Participants
from the ESA citizen’s jury showed concerns towards the military’s
use of space and had clear feelings towards only using space for
positive technological advancements. Comments surrounding the
military’s use of space included “don’t put weapons up there”.
Space tourism
The concept of space tourism is not new and was commercially
proposed the morning after the first Apollo flight in 1968. The first
space tourist was an American businessman who entered space in
2001 for $20,000. In 1999, Bournemouth University carried out a
study to evaluate the potential demand for space tourism in the UK.
Public attitudes to space and satellites
Some participants did not share the same excitement for space travel
and gave reasons such as fearing for their safety and being happy
on Earth. Comments left on the website in response to the study
included “I think it’s a real waste of money” and “another thing for the
super-rich”.
Space tourism has been a popular topic in media recently with a
number of articles reporting on commercial space travel within
the next decade. In January 2013, the Daily Mail Online released
the article ‘Is this the year private space travel finally has lift-off?
Why 2013 could be one giant leap for tycoons’ out-of-this-world
ambitions’ (Daily Mail, 2013). The article received 27 comments from
members of the public, of which there was a balance of opinion in
support of Richard Branson’s spacecraft taking passengers to space
and comments voicing scepticism on the issue.
Concerns were raised relating to the carbon footprint and
environmental damage that space flight would bring some
considered space tourism as a “carnival ride for the wealthy and elite”.
Mining minerals from space
Mining minerals and natural resources from space is a topic that
some of the public will have encountered in the media. Although
media activity has not been as great for space mining as it has for
space tourism in the UK, there has still been a variety of media
coverage in the past few years (Clark, 2013; Collins, 2013a; Collins,
2013b). The comments that the public post on such articles generally
tend to be critical and overall there is a lack of confidence in the
potential to mine resources from asteroids.
In a recent article by The Guardian on the US’s plans to mine
asteroids by 2020, comments were left such as “how much will the
first gram mined have cost”, “the forecast dates are way, way too
optimistic” and “Ludicrous”.
These reveal that the public currently consider asteroid mining to be
more of a pipe dream than a realistic industry. Concerns brought up
included the issue of international ownership of asteroids. The public
debated whether or not it was right for the USA to mine asteroids
when they do not own them.
Other comments showed that some of the public did have
enthusiasm for the concept of asteroid mining, but it was usually
overridden by the opinion that asteroid mining would not be
economically viable, and that the cost of mining would outweigh the
value of the resources acquired.
March 2016
Gap analysis
References
Little public attitudes research has been conducted in the area of
space and satellites. No formal public dialogue has been conducted,
and the evidence that exists relates to specific topics such as space
tourism, asteroid mining and human space flight. These studies do
not align with the areas of space technology that the UK are world
leaders in, such as satellites and robotics.
• Amos, J. (2012)“X-37B Spaceplane ‘spying on China’.” http://www.
bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16423881
Most public opinion in this report has been gathered from online
forums and opinion polls with only one deliberative dialogue
activity identified, meaning that while we can report the toplines
of public opinion, there is little insight into the reasons people hold
those views. The last academic study on space-related technologies
and public opinion focused on space tourism and was published
over a decade ago. Since then, UK academic research into other
commercial applications of space has been limited.
Activities that have gathered the views of the public have in most
cases been instigated by, and focused on, the scientific community,
with less involvement of the general public. Nonetheless, there have
been a few studies that have actively included the wider public, with
the most activity occurring between 2004 and 2009.
Most of the polls and forums that have been identified do not record
the demographics of the participants involved. Factors such as
gender, location, household income, religion and ethnicity can all
influence the way the public feel about the commercial space sector.
Of the public engagement that has taken place, there has been no
replication over a period of time. It would be useful to carry out
the same opinion polls, containing the same questions to assess
whether the public’s views are changing. This would enable a more
accurate prediction of how the public feel about the development of
the space industry in forthcoming years.
Satellites play an integral part in the UK’s future commercial space
ventures, but there has been no public dialogue where the main
focus is on how the public feel about the use of satellites, now and in
the future. Extreme space weather has recently been identified as a
risk to the UK’s satellite infrastructure (RAEng, 2013), but there were
no references to this in any of the sources identified, which suggests
the public have little awareness of this issue.
There is no data on public attitudes to the UK’s recent involvement
in space exploration, such as astronaut Tim Peake’s time on the
International Space Station. More public consultation should be
considered for further developments.
• Barrett, O. “Space future - an evaluation of the potential demand
for space tourism within the United Kingdom.” http://www.
spacefuture.com/archive/an_evaluation_of_the_potential_
demand_for_space_tourism_within_the_united_kingdom.shtml
• BBC. “How China is Advancing its Military Reach.” Accessed March
2016. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16588557
• ———. “UK should ‘Reverse Astronaut Ban’.” BBC,2005. http://
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4351688.stm
• BIS. “The Space Innovation and Growth Strategy.” http://
webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20121212135622/
• Clark, S. , 2013. “Asteroid mining is back in fashion (unlike the
tank top).” The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/science/
across-the-universe/2013/jan/23/asteroid-mining-deep-spaceindustries?intcmp=239
• Collins, N., 2013. “Asteroid Prospecting: What could we Stand to
Gain?” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/space/9819612/
Asteroid-prospecting-what-could-we-stand-to-gain.html
• ———. “World’s first fleet of asteroid-prospecting spacecraft
launched.” 2013. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/
space/9818734/Worlds-first-fleet-of-asteroid-prospectingspacecraft-launched.html
• Daily Mail. “Is this the year private space travel finally has lift-off?”.
Accessed March 2016. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/
article-2255784/Is-year-private-space-travel-finally-lift-Why-2013giant-leap-tycoons-world-ambitions.html
• ITV News. “New MoD Skynet satellite to protect UK troops abroad.”
Accessed March 2016. http://www.itv.com/news/2012-12-20/
ministry-of-defence-launch-satellite-into-space/
• Nathan, S., 2012. “Last Week’s Poll: Britain’s increasing ESA
contribution http://www.theengineer.co.uk/last-weeks-pollbritains-increasing-esa-contribution/
• Oliphant, R., 2013. “Russia facing no access to space for first time
since Cold War.” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/
europe/russia/9792580/Russia-facing-no-access-to-space-forfirst-time-since-Cold-War.html
• Royal Academy of Engineering, 2013. Extreme space weather:
impacts on engineered systems and infrastructure:
• Royal Astronomical Society. “Humanspace exploration survey”
Accessed March 2016. http://www.ras.org.uk/component/
content/article/1147
• Safwat, B., Stilgoe, J., and Gillinson, S. “Open space: a citizen’s
jury on space exploration.” http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/
exploration/Public/DEMOS_Space_Jury_final_report_v5.pdf
• Sciencewise, 2015. Space Wweather public dialogue, final report.
• Telegraph, 2012 “First Syrian in space defects from Assad regime”.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/
syria/9454074/First-Syrian-in-space-defects-from-Assad-regime.
html
Acknowledgements
• UK Space Agency, 2016 “The size & health of the UK space
industry.” https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/
uploads/attachment_data/file/363904/SandH2014final2.pdf
This report, and the others in the series, has been produced by
Sciencewise.
• Willetts, David. “Eight Great Technologies - Speeches - GOV.
UK.” Accessed February 2016. https://www.gov.uk/government/
speeches/eight-great-technologies
Sciencewise would like to thank Alison Crowther for taking
the time to review draft versions of this report and for all
their useful comments and insights.
• YouGov. “Space exploration still seen as important.” Accessed
March 2016. https://yougov.co.uk/news/2013/11/08/spaceexploration-still-important/
This report and others are available online at http://www.
sciencewise-erc.org.uk/cms/what-the-public-say-3
• YouGov. “Space tourism: would you make an all-expenses
paid trip?” Accessed March 2016. https://yougov.co.uk/
news/2012/08/02/space-tourism-would-you-make-all-expensespaid-tri/
Public attitudes to space and satellites
March 2016