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A webconference on Space Tourism, in view of the 2021 Space Renaissance Congress “Civilian Space Development”

A webconference on Space Tourism, in view of the 2021 Space Renaissance Congress “Civilian Space Development”

October 26th 2020, a first webconference took place on Space Tourism, in view of the 2021 Space Renaissance Congress (3rd SRI World Congress) “Civilian Space Development”.
The panel was composed by five of the best experts of the matter worldwide: Andreas Bergweiler (Germany), Patrick Collins (Japan), Sam Coniglio (US), Al Globus (US), Rino Russo (Italy).
Adriano Autino, SRI, President, moderated the meeting, proposing a number of questions, based on the concept that Space Tourism is the first step on the way of expanding civilization into outer space.

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Posted by Adriano in Events, News

My determined refutation of Phil Torres’s arguments against space colonization

“Space colonization and suffering risks: Reassessing the ‘maxipok rule’” is an article published in 2018 by Phil Torres, Director of the Project for Future Human Flourishing.

The article, published two years before Covid19, argues that expanding civilization into space would be the worst dystopian future. This nonsense theory is based on the hypothesis that expansion into space will generate a wide variety of different species, many having their own cultural, political, religious faiths and traditions. According to the author, such a great diversity will not represent a fantastic cultural richness of the space civilization (!). Opposite, it would only result in catastrophic conflicts between different civilizations. Any mitigation strategies, such as a cosmic government (called “Leviathan”) and the implementation of policies of deterrence to prevent conflicts would be problematic, due to the limited speed of space travel and the transfer of information, and the advanced weaponry that future civilizations will almost certainly have at their disposal. The outcome would be a paranoid fear of each civilization to be attacked and destroyed by others. Btw, the author foresees that future civilizations will have advanced weaponry, but not advanced ethics and full inclusive culture, open to different intelligent species, however coming from the same homo sapiens strain.

The first consideration is that the author – as did his referred mentor Daniel Deudney before him — is projecting his claustrophobic terror of the future on the future millennia.
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Posted by Adriano
The Elysium effect: a Rick Tumlinson’s small paper on Space Pioneers

The Elysium effect: a Rick Tumlinson’s small paper on Space Pioneers

Space.com published a beautiful brief reflection about the new space pioneers, how they are perceived in the incoming post covid ideological climate, and how the space community should anticipate and reverse such a possible misfelt methaphysics.A summary of the contents: Opposite of Elysium’s elite, the so called Space Barons have goals of the highest order: saving the planet and opening space to future generations. Yet these visionaries are often portrayed as rich boys with fancy toys. In the incoming anti-waste mood the space revolution-naries will be seen as stereo-typical of the wealth and power that has driven the Earth to the brink of disaster.

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Posted by Adriano in News, Newsletters, Philosophy, Space Economy
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.

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Posted by Adriano in News, Newsletters
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”.

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Posted by Adriano in News, Newsletters, Space Renaissance Academy
Sourav Karmakar interviewed by Bharathi Sharma and Sachika Bhatia for the Space Renaissance Academy Mentorship Programme

Sourav Karmakar interviewed by Bharathi Sharma and Sachika Bhatia for the Space Renaissance Academy Mentorship Programme

Sourav Karmakar, CEO of Infinos Tech LLP, and Chair of Space Renaissance India, was interviewed by Bharathi Sharma and Sachika Bhatia (Space Renaissance India), for the Space Renaissance Academy Mentorship Programme.
Sourav Karmakar, researcher on Soft & Flexible Robotics, for med-tech, defence & aerospace applications, hold TEDx talks about “Space For Everyone”.

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Posted by Adriano in News, Space Renaissance Academy
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.

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Posted by Adriano in News, Newsletters, Space Economy