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22
Oct
2020
Is this a small divergence of visions or a major philosophical issue?

Is this a small divergence of visions or a major philosophical issue?

Recently Space Renaissance International went through a two months discussion, in a tentative to unify our efforts with some colleagues, since a few years organized in the International Lunar Decade group. The envisaged new alliance was to be called ‘Global Space Renaissance’ (GSR).

However, such a tentative has aborted, after acknowledging a fundamental difference in the views of our two organizations.

One of the organizers of ILD wrote: “Our objectives cannot be accomplished by making statements that are considered unrealistic in timetable (…) We are definitely not an sole advocate of urgent human space settlements. Humans have not learned out to live sustainably on Earth and we need to learn this lesson before seeking to create settlements in space.”

After a quick email exchange, we both agreed to withdraw SRI from the GSR tentative.

I am aware that many could find bizarre to break a worth tentative of efforts unification between two space advocacy organizations due to a small divergence of visions. Couldn’t such different visions work together, for the sake of our shared ideals?

The first answer is yes, they could, if they would be allowed to hold the same priority.

Continue reading →

Posted by Adriano in News, Newsletters
21
Aug
2020
Gregg Maryniak – interviewed by Corrinne Graham, for the Space Renaissance Academy Mentorship Programme

Gregg Maryniak – interviewed by Corrinne Graham, for the Space Renaissance Academy Mentorship Programme

Corrinne Graham (Economic financial analyst, Space Renaissance USA) interviewed Gregg Maryniak, about his history, motivation and aims to inspire young generations to find their way to the outer space:

Gregg is the co-founder, together with Peter Diamandis, of the XPRIZE Foundation. The XPRIZE is recognized by the space community, as the initiative that triggered the New Space revolution, by demonstrating that private, commercial low cost access to space was feasible.

He was the Executive Vice President and Director of the Space Studies Institute, founded by Gerard O’Neill in Princeton US. He is Chairman of Space and Energy at Singularity University and keeps on restlessly working to inspire and motivate students and public opinion at large, explaining why human expansion into space is needed and very urgent, in order not to miss our “launch window”.

Continue reading →

Posted by Adriano in News, Newsletters, Space Renaissance Academy
14
Jul
2020
Humanity is not forced to choose among Earth and Space, yet

Humanity is not forced to choose among Earth and Space, yet

An article published by Lori Garver in 2019 proposed to “forget new crewed missions in space” and “NASA to focus on saving Earth.”

I thought such an extreme position was worth to be discussed, and strongly refuted.

No Lori. I strongly disagree with you.

I am not a US citizen, but NASA is a Planet Earth’s primary space agency, therefore i am speaking as a Planet Earth’s citizen.

I am not against taking care of planetary issues, that basically would mean to follow the UN 2030 17 SDGs. All initiatives that NASA and other major space agencies could undertake, to mitigate global issues, such as climate extreme phenomena, pollution, plastic in the sea, fighting against pandemics, are more than welcome, and should be pursued.

I am 100% in favor of active initiatives (opposite to passive de-growthist “solutions”), e.g. to build dams to protect coastal towns, and eventually use the water surplus (coming from ice melting) to claim deserts. Proper space technologies can be used to support such kind of active initiatives.

But we must be aware that none of the planetary global issues can be solved, none of the 17 SDGs can be achieved, without adding the 18th SDG: to kick-off civilian space development.

Continue reading →

Posted by Adriano in News, Newsletters, Space Economy
25
Jun
2020
The Great Objection and its Confutation

The Great Objection and its Confutation

(image: the recently discovered golden asteroid, worth $700 quintillion)

THE GREAT OBJECTION AND ITS CONFUTATION

— Why we cannot solve any problems on Earth before going to space —

The original version of this article was written in 2009, and reviewed by the author in May 2020

(from the old Technologies of the Frontier www.tdf.it website)

  • Before going to space, should we solve the problems here, on Earth?
  • The need for growth
  • The management of scarce resources is possible only by despotic regimes
  • The only way is space industrialization

Before going to space, should we solve the problems here, on Earth?

Whenever we speak about human presence in space to a general audience, and quite often when we talk with specialists as well, we have to hear the Great Objection: ”Before going to space, we have to solve our problems here, on the Earth”.

As soon as we reason about it we understand that the Objection is in fact a general dialectic scheme, which consists in changing the topic, pretending that the alternative is more important and urgent and so avoiding to reply to what the speaker has said. In short, it is a sort of quite-another-ism: “The problem is quite another, the cause is quite another…”.

But the Objection is Great, because too many people use it and take it for good, therefore we must face it at once and make people understand that the truth is exactly the opposite: if we don’t go to space and we don’t do it quickly, we are destined to a bad future here on the Earth. The reason is that the Earth has a finite size, to live all well we need economic growth and already now its resources are not enough, then we have to look for resources elsewhere – that is in the immense universe out there!

Continue reading →

Posted by Adriano in News, Newsletters, Philosophy, Space Economy
30
May
2020
Is the surface of a planet really the right place for an expanding technological civilization?

Is the surface of a planet really the right place for an expanding technological civilization?

Is the surface of a planet really the right place for an expanding technological civilization?

by A. V. Autino

While recovering the materials of the old Technologies of the Frontier website (destroyed by hackers few years ago), I came across this document: an interview by Stewart Brand’s with Gerard O’Neill, made in July 1975. In fact, it is also online on the NASA’s website https://settlement.arc.nasa.gov/CoEvolutionBook/Table_Of_Contents.HTML, and is linked from the NSS website as well.

However, reading Gerard O’Neill’s history of the development of his great idea gave me a big emotion, and I thought worth to propose it for further reflection and possible engagement today, while we are crossing our fingers, waiting for the first humans going to orbit on a private launch vehicle, the Space X Dragon Crew.

The document is now online on the SRI website, and I thought worth to include it among the space renaissance philosophy basic documents.

Here are some excerpts. Continue reading →

Posted by Adriano in News, Newsletters, Philosophy, Science & Technology
25
May
2020
SRI’S PROGRAM IS NOW URGENT, IN ORDER TO END THE POST-LOCKDOWN RECESSION

SRI’S PROGRAM IS NOW URGENT, IN ORDER TO END THE POST-LOCKDOWN RECESSION

SRI’S PROGRAM IS NOW URGENT, IN ORDER TO END THE POST-LOCKDOWN RECESSION

Abstract

This article discusses the urgency to start developing reusable passenger-carrying space-vehicles. Growth is necessary for quality of life, and no more growth will be possible without free space travel. Creation of new business activities is necessary, and lack of new industries is a permanent condition in advanced societies. The article also confutes the theory that economic growth is dangerous, and should be reverted, and discusses what new industries are candidates for creating tens of millions of new jobs, without destroying jobs in existing industries. The 7th major transportation technology — space travel, based on rocket propulsion – is compared to the previous 6 ones: horse-carriages, sailing-ships, trains, propeller-driven ships, cars, trucks and buses, aircrafts. Collins brings powerful arguments to sustain the rapid development of a range of reusable passenger-carrying space-vehicles, followed by orbiting and lunar commercial and industrial infrastructures. Collins also explains why the SRI’s viewpoint has now become urgent due to the “Lockdown Recession”, arguing that even before the recent “lockdown” policies, economic growth was weak in the rich Countries. And, nowadays, the 7th transportation industry should be very attractive to governments. Collins ends by a strong confutation of the two major objections to civilian space development: 1) developing a luxury service like space travel was unnecessary and wasteful 2) de-industrialization was necessary to reduce humans’ environmental impact; and the clear indication that the development of space travel services should receive at least 1/1,000 of the budget that “green” policies receive, or about 1% of what space agencies receive for their activities. A severe judgment is then pronounced on those who advocate ending economic growth due to the “dwindling resources” of Earth: they are like a small child who still believes that the house where they live is the whole world. Continue reading →

Posted by Adriano in News, Newsletters, Philosophy, Space Economy
12
May
2020
THE LUNAR EXPLOITATION INDUSTRY COULD TAKE OFF WITH SOME MORE GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

THE LUNAR EXPLOITATION INDUSTRY COULD TAKE OFF WITH SOME MORE GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

THE LUNAR EXPLOITATION INDUSTRY COULD TAKE OFF WITH SOME MORE GOVERNMENT SUPPORT 

by Giulio Prisco

In my last SpaceNews Op-Ed I argued that we should build a sustainable presence on the Moon before moving on to Mars and beyond.

I stated that promising business cases for returning to and start exploiting the Moon, with reasonable funding and reasonable expectations of return, are beginning to appear. Some readers criticized me for stating this without supporting evidence (I just linked to Paul Spudis’ 2016 book). They also noted that, were this the case, space companies should be rushing to the Moon with their own money, without government support.

There is, however, a big difference between the “promising business cases are beginning to appear” and “solid business cases exist” phases. In the first phase, a few venture capitalists start investing, but most large investors stay behind to see what happens. The exploitation of lunar resources is still in the first phase, and I think public funding is still needed to bootstrap the industry.

Therefore, I think governments (and in particular the U.S. government) should continue to lead the way, in partnership with private industry, and encourage commercial partners to assume leadership when the time is right. Continue reading →

Posted by Adriano in News, Newsletters, Space Economy, United States
31
Mar
2020
A brave old world

A brave old world

When we, Space Renaissance members, spoke of the many dangers humanity was facing on the planet, which we felt could only be addressed by having humanity move out into space, I doubt we imagined we would be facing two of these dangers in a few years. Yet at this moment, most of us are in quarantine and out of work.

Governments around the world and their people are trying to deal with a health and economic crisis with no precedent, and some countries are even trying to ignore the danger to see if it simply goes away on its own. But our old world strategies have been useless to face the crisis, and in a few months the world’s most powerful leaders imposed controls, quarantines and other strategies to limit harm while technology caught up to the pandemic. Continue reading →

Posted by Adriano
19
Mar
2020
We’re almost eight billion, nobody can stop us!

We’re almost eight billion, nobody can stop us!

Key concepts:

  • Why are governments useful in times of big crisis? Because they can recover the economy, printing currency, supporting stock markets after catastrophic events, such as pandemics.

  • The extraordinary growth of our civilization in this closed world has reached the limit.

  • The closed world syndrome puts civilization at risk, with many threats such as pandemics, climate changes, big migrations.

  • Expanding civilization into outer space is even more urgent in the new context determined by the above threats.

In these days, in which the worst dystopian science fiction seems to have invaded reality, many are led to reflect, in particular, on the fact that the extraordinary growth of our civilization in a closed world has reached a limit. Some practical philosophical reflection may therefore be welcome. Different futures await us, depending on the choices we will make. Continue reading →

Posted by Adriano in News, Newsletters, Philosophy