News

SRI News

Apr

2016

Do you believe in a space renaissance? Then join the Space Renaissance!

Do you believe in a space renaissance? Then join the Space Renaissance!

Collapse of Western civilization – Nowadays many economic and international relations experts talk openly about the collapse of the Western civilization and also attempt to predict the date of such a collapse with the five-year period from 2025 to 2030 considered to be “very critical”. One such example: “ Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World” was recently published by the US National Intelligence Council. (See link below).

This comprehensive document covers various topics including the development of a multipolar society, continuing population growth, limiting resources at all levels and the considerable risk of conflict proliferation including significant concerns about the spread of nuclear weapons. Within such a period, a number of crucial attributes will emerge and global conflict may erupt with long term and destructive consequences. After the fall of the Berlin wall during the last quarter of 20th century, no concrete plan for a newer world order was implemented. The West now appears to be incapable of facing declining security, the threat of terrorism, the deficits of a so called postmodern era and is unable to protect its citizens and its newer generations from the threat of violence. After witnessing the recent disruption of many national societies including those in the Middle East and North Africa, the West, however, has failed so far to propose any further reiteration of the democratic social model which could feasibly contribute towards global stability, development and world peace.

War, “hygiene of the world”? – Looking at the past, it is often assumed that when a civilization finds itself in an implausible, stagnant or declining state, progress is “awakened” by crisis and warfare: shock and trauma are regenerators or even the “hygiene of the world”, as was defined by Marinetti’s futurism in 1909.

The current expectations of our many global societies could be summarized by future historians within the expression “the decline of Western civilization”, and it could find its epilogue in what may be large and highly generalized conflicts. Such a decline could be partly balanced trhough the collaborative development of the emerging Eastern countries including China, Asia and Russia as well. Even so, the potential of these entities will be considerably slowed by a lack of resources and greatly hampered by the still ruling philosophy that sees our planet as a closed environment. Even if warfare were still considered to be ethically acceptable, if indeed it ever was, for a number of reasons it does not seem to be a very useful “tool” in the world of today.

The wars of the past are extinct prospects: they were declared among nation states, were fought between armies which destroyed multiple resources, endured and ended while triggering and ushering in territories and newer political phases. Today’s hybrid wars are more likely to be eternal and exhausting guerrilla wars, wars of long term attritions that are comprised of ethnic and cultural unrest, political adventurism, terrorism, and the suppression of civilian populations. They are also endemic and depressing, quickly affecting essential business, travel, tourism, the economy, and development in general. At this stage we find ourselves in an immanent and vertical crisis, both economically and militarily, in that global society should certainly contemplate the final prospect, i.e. this situation could lead to a tragic end game implosion of civilization. Such a threat would comprise the first time that a (globalized!) civilization might break down without another civilization ready to pick up the baton. That is why we cannot resign ourselves to a supposed “necessary evil” or having to accept “bitter medicine”, as a prelude to healing, because most probably there would be no possible compensation, or any realistic resurgence and our species might plausibly regress to an insufficient pre-cultural anthropology or, far more tragically, to an hopeless post-cultural status.

On a purely economic level, considering the desperate need to allocate immense resources to essential and large scale development projects, civilization at large can no longer afford to spend a majority of its national budgets per year on weapons and on highly unproductive and unusable rearmament. Last but not least, the destructive potential of modern weapons, especially nuclear, has greatly increased the danger of total self-destruction of civilization, though this subject might nowadays be out of fashion.

So, in a nutshell: humanity cannot tolerate war. It cannot afford it as it is useless for any purpose. Indeed, it is 100% counterproductive and regressive. Therefore, a marked change in strategies is urgent than ever before. When it is noted that the direction in which we are going may lead towards disaster, we need to change direction as soon as possible, and to set off for a new era of vigorous development, one which raises and restores hopes of social growth – a new renaissance.

A disruptive shock of new global concepts – To trigger a new renaissance we need the disruptive shock of new global concepts, but we have already seen that these cannot take the shape of warfare. Given the choice, and we do not see why we should not be able to make such choices, would we happily opt for a positive shock that brings excitement, joy and opportunity rather than death and destruction? We prefer to propose a new perspective and a new human understanding, with far reaching horizons, as opposed to providing cannon fodder for tyrannies while avoiding the squalor and the mud of misery. It would be useless to invoke stability, democracy, freedom, development and well-being, without the dignity that comes from jobs: as without offering a new type of industrial development, nothing can stand in the way of Armageddon. The most fruitful revolutions were in fact, the industrial ones. The most promising industrial revolution now currently possible, is found through the global development in the fields of innovative civilian astronautics – from Low Earth Orbit to the cislunar region of space. All the harbingers of progress now point upwards.

There is little remaining potential for new land transport industries and, although improvements will be made, we have resigned ourselves already to the decline of the oil civilization, to which we are still tied. It is not difficult to see, in fact, that the crisis which began in 2008 with skyrocketing oil prices, is now finding a fresh outbreak with the decline in oil prices, the deflation factor and hence a global economic slump. Given the pace of original technological advancement, the new urbanism is thus forced to take inspiration from the work of our most forward thinkers and original scientists. In particular we continue to reiterate enlightened 20^th century thinkers such as Gerard O’Neill and Krafft Ehricke, aiming humanity towards Earth’s orbit, to the Moon, into cislunar space, and towards the Near Earth Asteroids. With science and technology humanity will look to the stars – not as a distant sky to be observed – but as an immediate three dimensional framework within which we are immersed, and through which we will need to learn how to navigate and to live. Will our children and grandchildren dwell among the stars or in the teeming wastes of urban blight and the shacks of shanty towns? The outcome depends on us today, we, seven and a half billion citizens of planet Earth. We must decide, while we still have the power to do so, whether to dedicate our energies, our governments, our taxes and our investments for warfare, death and destruction, or apply these towards the opportunities inherent in opening space frontier and the forthcoming Renaissance.

The plan to capture an asteroid, and bring it to L5 – Considering positive shocks to society, like the many major and historic projects – ideas that are comparable in scope to the construction of the Egyptian pyramids – will illustrate our case. Some examples: the plan to capture an asteroid, bring it to stable lunar orbit at L5, and creating a large rotating habitat endowed with artificial gravity; which represents just one of many remarkable concepts; or the possibility to achieve within the next 20 or 50 years a comprehensive manned lunar settlement and then subsequent trips to Mars undertaken by astronauts of all nations; or to achieve an unfolding space based information networks in LEO, accessible to all peoples in all places which can accurately investigate, describe and create the comprehensive infrastructures of a sustainable future world.

The focus on international space development will bring an impetus to the comprehensive global agenda, helping it to endow an equitable world-view and to avert the many critical threats we currently face. Amongst many innovative prospects, tax policies which are favorable to the companies in the civil astronautics will contribute to the preparation of low cost earth-orbit fully reusable vehicles leading to the development of orbital infrastructure and lunar tourism.

We will face the problem of a instable political direction. New leadership with a highly scientific, technological and cultural profile is needed. We can see a glimpse of this on the horizon, yet, unfortunately, only a beginning. But let’s do it! It depends on us!

The Space Renaissance International and its national chapters have several initiatives and public events in agenda, a possible workshop on Lagrange City at L5, and for cislunar architectures in October 2016 in Rome, and in 2017 the Space, Not War! Congress.

https://www.spacenotwar.space

Want to help? Do you believe in a space renaissance? Then Join the Space Renaissance Initative!

We are looking for membership from all walks of life and all persuasions. Please join us in creating the new paradigm for the 21^st century.

If your country does not have a national SRI chapter already, you can register as a member of Space Renaissance International, here:

https://spacerenaissance.space/build-sri-with-us/membership-2/membership/.

IMPORTANT: you received this newsletter as an invitation. To deliver a newsletter entails some overhead and administration, and we do not intend to send our communications to persons who are not interested, and which would therefore remain unread.

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Link to: “Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World”

https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/Newsroom/Reports%20and%20Pubs/2025_Global_Trends_Final_Report.pdf

[English editing by Amalie Sinclair & Arthur Woods]

Download the pdf English version:

https://spacerenaissance.space/media/SRI_Newsletter_17042016.pdf

Télécharger la version française, en pdf:

https://spacerenaissance.space/media/SRI_Newsletter_17042016-fr.pdf

[Edition française par Catherine Laplace-Builhe & Philippe Blanc]

Oct

2015

“The Martian”, a movie and a book still to be written

SRI NEWSLETTER – OCTOBER 20^th 2015 – by A. V. Autino

There’s never time to write and comment on everything worthy of comment, however “The Martian” (in Italian, “Il sopravvissuto”) gives me the opportunity to put on paper some concepts very central to my space activist sensitivity.

First of all, I will say that I would like very much to see an exploration mission to Mars, and I could also say that I’d like to have seen it some years ago, and now to be witness to its initial settlements. This is a first point of discussion: many will say that the technologies are not mature enough. I would reply that technologies to go to the Moon simply didn’t exist in 1961, when President Kennedy challenged NASA to reach our natural satellite within ten years. So please let’s not listen too much to the ones who make things even more difficult than they are, in order to “raise the price” of their supply.

Having said that, I have to say that the book written by Andy Weir is much better than the movie, from the point of view of the novel: we listen to Mark Watney, his desperation, his hopes, his continuous reasoning on the practical problems he does his best to solve, by his skills of as an astronaut and botanist. And, most of all, the book is a manifesto of the human initiative, and capacity to never give up. The book also gives us the measure of how much Mars needs to be explored, in order to understand the conditions in which the first settlers will find themselves. This is something that the movie doesn’t convey, or, if it does, in a reduced measure.

Coming to the policy aspects, the book and the movie were released just before NASA was presenting its budget to the Congress. At the same time, NASA announced the discovery of liquid water flowing on Mars, albeit seasonally. The mission statement of NASA is space exploration and it is entirely appropriate to justify an agency’s proposed budget by highlighting achievements that demonstrate the mission is being accomplished. They have done so repeatedly and with savvy marketing capability: chapeau! (said without irony :-). The message is quite clear, and it is repeated several times during the movie: the goal is to do exploration missions, and always to bring the explorers back to home, on Earth.

Not by chance, the end of the movie is quite different from the end of the book. The last lines of the book are taken from the board logbook, Mission Day 687. Mark questions why such a significant amount of money was spent to rescue him, one only person, instead of abandoning him on Mars’ surface. Beyond the humanitarian rationales, he mentions “progress, science and the interplanetary future that we dream since centuries”. The last scenes of the movie show us Mark, considering a green, small plant spontaneously growing among stones on Earth and, subsequently, giving an education to young candidate explorers, illustrating the very hard conditions of space. The subliminal message seems very clear to me: let’s continue to empower trained explorers to go to Mars, while the rest of us remain “safe” (so to say) on Earth. During the credits, we listen to the announcement of NASA about next exploration mission, reiterating the concept: the goal is to bring the explorers back to home, to Earth. So, even “ordinary” viewers of the movie, fully unaware of any space policy, could ask: but why are we going there, if we don’t want to stay, and to settle on another planet for human benefit? To address that question, I’d like to submit few reflections those who promote Mars colonization and spacefaring civilization.

First, are we sure that, in 2030, should the only space strategy remain exploration, we will have resources and funds to re-purpose an Apollo-style program to Mars? Considering the social, economical and environmental situations that could be logically anticipated, considering that likely in 2030 we will be 9 or 10 billions people on Earth, I have many doubts. Only expanding our industrial development beyond the limits of our mother planet we can hope to revert the global crisis, and to ignite the greatest economic and cultural revolution of all times. So, why should we just keep on exploring, and not to start expanding? And, talking about expansion, what are the logical first steps? Industrializing the geo-lunar space region, of course, the so called Greater Earth, including the Earth’s orbit, the Moon, the Lagrange Points and the Near Earth Asteroids crossing in or near such area.

Rick Tumlinson recently wrote an article, titled “How we go to Mars”. This is a good approach to the matter. Nobody wants to discuss whether to go or not to go to Mars. The questions are: with which resources, with what support by people, by public money or by private effort? And, could it be a program forwarded by one only country, or would it be an international cooperation program? My opinion is that we won’t be able to reach Mars in 2030, nor later, if a serious expansion program is not well rooted and in progress. Rick answers the question “why” thusly: to improve science and to expand civilization. And he discusses several possible ways, through the Moon or directly, just to explore or to settle and remain. The extent to which the world is in crisis may be perceived differently, depending on whether one lives east or west of the Atlantic. Maybe many more alternatives seem to be possible, from one’s particular vantage point. I would say that, being the current global expenditure around $1,7 trillions/year, for opposing global terrorism and feeding different conflicts, and the expenditure for space just $25 billions, if the world remains closed we can only expect such a quite immature balance to get worse. Any space exploration mission will be more uncertain, unsafe and insufficiently supported.

Having said that, we can still see the problem in different ways. We could criticize the NASA strategy, still oriented only to space exploration and closed to space expansion and industrialization. But I am afraid that would be an old method, based on opposition, instead of collaboration. In parallel, we can however cautiously applaud the new ESA’s strategy, that includes a quite interesting Moon program, for the years 2020 – 2030, including the building of a first lunar village. Some of the Tumlinson’s questions are ruling, of course: who should finance space exploration, and who should finance space expansion? May we simply split the problem, as apparently the US administration tried to do: exploration by governments, by public money, and industrialization by private ventures? It is not that simple. Such an approach could simply lead to half the agency’s budget, and leave few courageous entrepreneurs fighting alone for the benefit of humanity. Is that correct?

I don’t think so. I believe we should move a few percent of the public expenditure toward the support the civilian astronautic industry. This does not preclude continuation of militaristic (defense) systems; such an high cultural maturity cannot be achieved in few months, nor years. But, considering that civilization is exposed to an incredibly high risk of implosion, if we don’t relaunch the global economy by bootstrapping the space revolution, could the military expenditure be reduced from $1.7 billion to $1.6 billion?

Can we imagine what we could do, should the space budget grow from the current $25 billion/year to $125 billion? We could develop the exploration of Mars, and the expansion into the Greater Earth, accelerating the decrease of the cost to orbit, building infrastructures at L4 and L5, on the Moon, and begin mining Asteroids. The civilian astronautic industry would be boosted, many companies founded, space tourism will take off (literally!), and the global crisis will could be overcome. Missions to Mars will move from a space yard located in L5, and not from Earth: that will be quite different book, with all my respect and appreciation to Andy Weir, and movie.

SPACE, NOT WAR!

The World Congress “Space, Not War!” (https://www.spacenotwar.org/) in preparation for 2016, will propose to the world public opinion the only real alternative to involution of civilization constrained within the boundaries of a physically and philosophically closed world.

This Call for Papers (https://www.spacenotwar.org/call_for_papers.php), still evolving, will be soon opened to abstracts submission.

It is already possible to express interest for the congress, using this Pre-Registration form (https://www.spacenotwar.org/congress_pre-registration.php)

[English review by Susan Singer]

download pdf version here: The Martian, a movie, and a book, still to be written

Sep

2015

MIGRATION AND EXPANSION – EARTHLINGS LOOKING FOR OTHER WORLDS

SRI NEWSLETTER – SEPTEMBER 11^th 2015 – by Adriano V. Autino

As always, I avoid commenting on hot news, on the the emotional wave of media images. I do this so as to not confuse myself with those who profit from the death of innocent children to gain visibility. However, my reflections aim to a higher and wider horizon, and a week more or less cannot change the substance.

On the exodus of almost biblical proportions of Middle Eastern peoples escaping massacres by wars and by ISIS, I do not pretend to be neutral and above. God forbid: I could no longer call myself a humanist, if I did. So I state now my conception of a world open, friendly and free, in all its meanings and directions, incoming, outgoing, and especially upwards, through the interface between our Earth and the Cosmos. I therefore welcome not only the position of the German government, probably dictated not only by humanitarianism, but also and much more the decision of those German citizens who put gifts and aids in their car, and went on to take in refugees. This is definitely the Europe that I like. But it’s already been said by many, and I do not intend to waste your time by repeating what has been already read and heard.

The matter is not, in fact, to decide whether to open or close the door to the refugees, because it would be like trying to stem a tsunami bare handed. The real point is: what are we doing, while we welcome the refugees (which I hope), or close them off? I’ll explain. Those who want to erect walls speculate on the fear of some potentially negative effects of mass immigration. Some of these effects can not be denied, however. I contend that such effects would be the same even in the case of closure. What causes them is not, in fact, the actual movement of migrants from their unfortunate countries to these (so far) less unfortunate countries of Europe. The real danger is the strong tides of possible cultural involution that the ongoing extensive social phenomena can contribute to determine. In other words, the social fear, both by migrants and by residents of destination countries, is the real destabilizing agent, which can retract the civic consciousness of centuries in a few seasons. The social fear affects both the people “invaded” by migrants and populations locked within neo-medieval physical and mental walls.

So the real problem is, what we, the so-called advanced societies, do in order to maintain and improve the level of culture and civil advance hard-won during the industrial era, thanks to the sacrifices of our fathers and grandfathers, who threw the blood, sweat, tears and brain synapses in the factories, in the fields, in the research laboratories? I know this probably sounds a little rhetorical and “twentieth centuried,” but please see it with “today eyes”. The real threat is that the intellectual and business vanguard born from the industrial revolutions at some point may throw in the towel and surrender before the tide of violence, of war and neo-feudal vulgarity and arrogance boarding at all levels. If that happens, the genocidal regime of ISIS, and all it represents, in terms of absolute primitivism and destruction of civilization, will have won. Why? Because the so-called advanced societies will not have been able to offer anything to young people, leaving them adrift, prey to the forces of evil and destruction.

When we leave our body still and idle for a long time, it is very easy that some disease will arise. In a culturally stagnant social context social ills develop and, if the context is the globalized world, diseases are global. It will not be the erection of walls, to be anyway overwhelmed, that will cure diseases, indeed: the closed world stale air can only worsen the condition of patients. The great migration is a reaction to great social ills: extreme poverty, bloody dictatorships, stagnant and abominable bureaucracies. People sets off in search of new worlds … Closing the doors and remained bounded in a rotting immobility will be useless. And, the ones who believed they had done enough welcoming in the refugees, would be making a mistake just as glaring! Accepting the migrants and remaining inert it would mean giving up any projects and to be submerged. We urgently need to restart the cultural progress, to open the world, a clear commitment to space, providing us with a more scientific and humanistic governance, and less corrupt, short-sighted, opportunistic and degrowther in facts. There is an urgent and indispensable need to defy civil unrest on the planet by exponentially increasing our design effort, aiming high, expanding the androsphere in space, building villages on the moon, constructing rotating O’Neill cities at Lagrange points, triggering new industrial development, all of which the free and peaceful civilization is in dire need. And no, Mr. Putin and Mr. Obama, the world today will not understand why the “powers” should feel the need for a military confrontation between themselves, triggered with the help of useful idiots like the Ukrainian aspirant tyrant or the unfading Syrian despot! The only understandable and sustainable use of force today is to unite and remove butchers, tyrants and despots.Much more important, however, is to bring the industrial revolution to the countries involved in the Arab Spring movement and in all countries striving for democracy. And what is the only ground on which a new industrial development can now be developed, especially in light of the recent vertical crisis of the BRICS countries? I know I’m repeating myself, but it can never be said enough: the only ground is outside the earthling ground! The geo-lunar industrialization, space tourism, spaceports, low cost vehicles to transport passengers into space, the use of lunar and asteroidal raw materials, the creation of millions of new jobs both on Earth and in space! The globalized world of today no longer offers to its seven and a half billion people, any possibility of low-cost expansion: unavoidable then that the people looking for peace, development and democracy are oriented to migration. While the so-called advanced nations fall into an endless spiral of increasingly devastating conflict. The only possible way is to expand upwards, to start to exploit the incalculable resources of our Solar System. Then the youth will have a very worthwhile perspective, from which to study and engage. And the future will continue to exist, in spite of the Sorcerer’s Apprentices who fomented the birth of ISIS.On October 7, 2015, at the Politecnico of Torino (Italy), the conference “The fledgling industry of civilian space flight” https://www.spacerenaissance.it/eventi/la-nascente-industria-del-volo-spaziale-civile/will discuss these issues.

This Call for Papers (https://www.spacenotwar.org/call_for_papers.php), still evolving, will be soon opened to abstracts submission.

[English review by Susan Singer]

download this article in pdf format

Jul

2015

The SRI UK Chapter to be incorporated the 11th of July, in Dornie, Scottish Highlands.

The incorporation of the UK Chapter will be on the 11th of July. The meeting will start 11.00am at the Dornie Village Hall Committee Room, and will continue after lunch.
9.30 visit of the Dornie Castle.
Introductory speeches (at least) by:
– Marianne Rugard (chair of the SRI UK Chapter),
– Adriano Autino (Space Renaissance International, President),
– Patrick Collins (SRI, VicePresident),
– David Ashford (Bristol Spaceplanes).
The founders will discuss the basic strategic plan for SRI UK, and how to promote space tourism and civilian astronautics development. The main projects and activities to be developed will be presented and discussed as well.
The official incorporation ceremony of the SRI UK Chapter will close the meeting.

Jun

2015

WELCOME BACK SAMANTHA!… AND WHEN WILL WE TAKE OFF?

Samantha Cristoforetti is safe back on Earth, after personal record of 200 days in space.

Turin, June 11, 2015 – Today is a day worthy of celebration. AstroSamantha has returned to Earth after a historic stay on board the International Space Station. Welcome back Samantha, and thank you for the scientific, popular and human commitment that you have demonstrated.

It seems logical, however, to ask some questions of the space agencies:

Why, 54 years after Yuri Gagarin’s first flight in orbit, are there still no space transportation services for civilian passengers?
Why is space flight still, in effect, accessible only to military astronauts, and to a few “tourists”, able to spend $30 million after signing a total liability release?
Why do we still not have fully reusable spacecraft, 46 years after the NASA X15 space plane was developed and made 200 flights at suborbital altitude? Why did NASA stop this very promising line of development, despite the huge number of studies in the ‘70’s, proving fully reusable two-stage vehicles, are technologically feasible?
Why today, to reach the Space Station, are we using the same machine, Soyuz, whose first flight was 25 years before the space shuttle, in 1966?
Why are courageous enterprises, like Space X, Virgin Galactic, Bigelow, ShipInSpace and others left to their own devices to attempt to downsize the cost of Earth-Orbit transportation, and are, in fact, opening the space frontier to private activities and to civilian passengers?
Should it not be the main objective of space agencies and governments, to boost the recovery of the world economy, to create opportunities and jobs for young people?
And why is the so-called “Astronautic Club” still restricted to the US, Russia and China, while Europe has given up developing its own orbital vehicle suitable for transporting humans into space?

We will try to answer these and other questions during our next conferences:

in Dornie (Scottish Highlands), July 11th, on the occasion of the founding of the SRI UK Chapter
in Torino (Italy), at Politecnico University, October 7th, during the conference: “THE RISING INDUSTRY OF THE CIVILIAN SPACE FLIGHT”
at the 2016 SRI World Congress “SPACE, NOT WAR!”; see the call to action

The development of civilian astronautics can create millions of new skilled jobs, and in this scenario, opportunities for integration of young graduates and undergraduates in the working world will be increased by several orders of magnitude: space planes, orbital hotels, factories and yards for space vehicles assembly and logistics infrastructures, energy and manufacturing, toward the geo-lunar space industrialization. A thrilling perspective, toward which Space Renaissance is working hard, with its restless public support.

BECOME ONE OF OUR MEMBERS: REGISTRATIONS ARE OPEN
To register, simply visit www.spacerenaissance.space, the membership registration page

Membership offers the following advantages:

A membership card 2015 Space Renaissance International
The right to vote in plenary meetings of the Space Renaissance International
Invitations and possibilities for active participation in the organization’s initiatives, conferences, seminars, annual projects, call for papers, etc.
Privileged access to conventions and congresses of the Space Renaissance International
The free access to much of the material produced by SRI

We conclude with our warmest congratulations to AstroSamantha, for her great contributions to experiments performed on the ISS, and also for being able to talk to and with the people, especially the younger ones, during her stay in orbit. It is because of people like this that space is a bit more accessible to the general public. We invite you warmly to join our initiative, as many of your colleagues did, a task of great dissemination of accessibility to the space, for future generations.

Feb

2015

Call to action!

Facing continuing brutality despite all of its advances, civilization, forced into the now narrow space of the pre-Copernican closed world, needs all humans to embrace the arms of culture, science, philosophy and technology to open the world to a new renaissance, the space renaissance.

We do not like to comment on events the same day or too close to their occurrence — even when they are so horrendous — like the ones we have seen a few weeks ago in the attacks on the editors of Charlie Hebdo and the kosher supermarket in Paris. But every day we have to record new merciless abominable murders. We, sincere humanists, are shaken, even personally, when death is caused intentionally by ideological madness, in France or anywhere. We are shocked by the massacre of 140 students at a school in Peshawar, Pakistan, recently perpetrated by Taliban, and by the mass exterminations by Boko Haram in Nigeria and other senseless killing. In the same way we are morally devastated by Western military reactions, when they cause the death of civilians, women and children, and further jeopardize already badly hit economies, instead of bringing relief and aid to the honest citizens, eager to work and progress.

We opted therefore to leave anger and pain to subside a bit, before our say. In fact, should we allow anger and pain to dictate our agenda, we would do nothing but support the terror. Keeping a cool head and a calm and mature reasoning skill, we definitely pronounce, not to fight Islam, or to embark the Western countries in a fruitless “clash of civilizations.” We shall acknowledge the reality for what it is: the worsening conflicts and the global economic crisis, raging for almost seven years, are due to the growing fear that pervades all of the populations of the world. The people of the so-called advanced countries are seeing their privileges gradually decaying, due to lack of new industries. The emerging countries already glimpsed the limits of their hope for growth, due to the finite resources and energy of our mother planet. The people of the so-called Third World still do not even perceive this time as mature for their industrial development. Abortive revolutions and unfulfilled hopes are fertile ground for all terrorism.

Read the whole newsletter here: SRI Newsletter 03 February 2015

Jul

2014

Mars, like the Moon? …. but … we would really put a great distance from the awful stench of death that rises from the old world …

What follows is my personal opinion. I understand that this topic is a quite controversial one, but it is time for a serious discussion about priorities, since the current world situation will not allow many more strategic mistakes. However my constructive critics are not intended to offend, and I highly esteem America and what it made in space, however the largest and most advanced space program of the world.
Forty five years after the historic landing of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon, without forgetting the good Michael Collins, who waited patiently for them in orbit, NASA officially announced a manned mission to Mars by 2030. By this announce NASA expresses, at least, a large confidence in the availability of the United States taxpayers to keep on supporting the space agency’ programs, even beyond the “low cost” policy, to which many today charge the responsibility for the space program’ failures and delays.
I take the freedom to applaud the NASA plan with several reserves and no little suspicion. Perhaps, when President Bush announced in 2004, the famous manifesto “Moon, Mars and Beyond”, did he aim to propose and consolidate, in fact, a methodology, more than a plan? Such methodology had already borne fruits, excellent for bureaucracies, but harbingers of stagnation and deepening global crisis for the entire human community.
To put it more explicitly: 1) what else does NASA space program include, before 2030? and, 2) what does NASA plan to do after the Mars mission, provided that it will develop and will be successful?
It is precisely the lack, once again, of a global vision, that raises my eyebrow. After the “conquest of Mars” NASA will sit for another fifty years on “laurels”, enjoying gifted public money?
Who does assure us that the 2030 Mars mission is not simply a way to revive a NASA strategy equal to the one of the last 45 years, dedicated solely to exploration and scientific research, and yet rigidly and stubbornely closed to the industrialization of the geo-lunar space, use of asteroids resources for the construction of the space infrastructure, a true expansion of civilization beyond the now narrow boundaries of our planet?
It should be clear, nowadays, even outside the international space community, that if the high frontier had been opened to privates thirty or forty years ago, as it was quite possible, likely today the global economy would be growing at double digits, and this horrible crisis would have been avoided. The fundamental question then is the following one: do they finally understood the lesson, or not? Did the space agencies finally understand their deep social responsibility, toward the civilization?

Should the announced program had made the mission to Mars as a spearhead of a true expansion and colonization plan, I’d applaud without reservation! A space program coherent with the current state of the world should definitely claim the leadership of a new industrial development, with primary emphasis on the construction of an orbital city, located at a Lagrange Point between Earth and the Moon, permanent stations on the Moon, to extract and process raw materials, capture near-Earth asteroids in order to use their raw materials, mainly virtually pure minerals. Not to mention that, in a contest of the world economy strong expansion, thanks to the development of civilian astronautics, both the Mars mission, and especially the subsequent initiatives for permanent settlements, would be much more sustainable. Meanwhile, the Twenty First Century Space Program should accelerate the development of Earth to Orbit fully reusable vehicles, develop orbital workshops and interchange stations, orbital hotels, to accommodate a growing population of space workers. And, also, to push hard the accelerator on studies for protection from solar heavy radiation and on the bio-technologies needed to sustain life in artificial environments. Should the NASA program include all of the above, the Mars mission would not appear as yet another “cathedral in the desert”, designed solely to seduce the taxpayers desire for adventure, keeping them well-chained to their seats, watching space exploration on TV … or , paraphrasing the much more poetic Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo, the theater of opera in the middle of the Amazon rainforest!

More and more we feel like the poor geese, nailed to a wood plank, to harvest the fois gras …

Meanwhile, in absence of a genuine ethically superior initiative, opening the frontier and achieving new resources, the terrestrial conflicts increase, rather than decrease, and not only in pre-industrial countries, but also in the heart of Europe.
And the stench of death rises beyond the bearable threshold, especially for those who love the wide spaces and freedom …

Jun

2014

The SRI international Congress to be held in July 2015 (SRI Newsletter)

The SRI Executive held a meeting Sunday June 22nd, and decided that the second international congress will be held in July 2015, as it was scheduled by the first congress in 2011. It was unanimously agreed that several relevant reasons exist, to undertake the congress works, not only to respect the four years frequency established by our statute.
First of all the radical innovation in our strategic plan. SRI was born as a philosophical international association, and this is what it is and wants to keep on being. End of 2012, SRI decided to build national chapters, strongly rooted on territory, where members can work together, seeing themselves in face, organizing local events, talking to the people. Nowadays we have a working chapter in Italy, Space Renaissance Italia, a new chapter in the US, Space Renaissance International USA, a chapter on the way to be incorporated in India, Karnataka, and another chapter to be incorporated in UK, Scotland.
Our Theses, written in 2011, need to be updated as well. Many things occurred in the world, confirming our analysis, that expanding civilization into space is an essential condition to its survival: the conflicts for the remaining earthly resources are worsening. Opening the high frontier will allow the advanced countries, thanks to their technology, to “unplug” from the disastrous confrontation with tribal societies, and to become a moral model for the young people of those countries, removing them from the suicidal philosophy of the Jihād, and achieving them to the noble big project to assure new resources, energy and space for the whole civilization.

Read the whole newsletter here: SRI_Newsletter_24062014: The SRI international Congress to be held in July 2015

May

2014

SRI Takes its ‘Space Renaissance’ to ISDC – Press Release

SRI successfully took its version of the renaissance to the Space Renaissance-themed International Space Development Conference in Los Angeles.
Adriano Autino, the president of Space Renaissance International, along with Space Renaissance Italia’s artistic director, Elena Cecconi, and SRI-USA President Walter Putnam presented the organization’s case for space development in person during the event last week sponsored by the National Space Society.

Read the Press Release here: SRI Takes its ‘Space Renaissance’ to ISDC – Press Release SRI_Release_22.05.2014