Make space, not war! – Space Renaissance

The world seems to be regressing back to Twentieth Century. Due to the war in Ukraine, humanity is paying a heavy price in terms of lives lost, as well as the severe cultural damage humankind is experiencing in many areas – including collaboration in scientific research, technology development, artistic enterprise, and (ultimately for us most consequential) international collaboration in civilian space development. The global economic cost of this war is difficult to determine, although we can estimate this must be in the order of trillions of dollars or euros. In just a few days, the stock exchange lost hundreds of billions. Moving weapons and soldiers into Ukraine and nearby countries has come at a very high cost. The global economy is being jeopardized, with incalculable damages to many companies – big and small. The cost of energy – already rising, now that the Covid19 pandemics is loosening its grip on the throat of civilization – continues to increase.

Let’s first reflect on what could be done, in space, with even a small fraction of the enormous amount of resources that this and other wars are wasting – including (1) a substantial boost to the realization of low-cost, safe, and 100% reusable launch vehicles, (2) the first rotating large space station, to start experimenting artificial gravity, (3) protection from the sun and cosmic radiation, (4) accelerated Moon settlements, (5) space debris recovering and reuse, (6) the inauguration of Moon and asteroid mining, and (7) the first steps toward manned Mars exploration.

As space community, it is not our responsibility to prescribe what to do to resolve the Ukrainian war, apart from expressing our unconditional solidarity with all the people who are suffering and negatively impacted by it.In general terms, we are concerned about the current approach to resolving conflicts – relying on violence, instead of rational and empathic discourse, to help understand divergent perspectives and to respond with compassion, rather than with arrogance – underscoring the “rights of the powerful”. It could be perceived as hypocritical to comment on this war in Ukraine, irrespective of the scores of forgotten wars which have killed millions of people in Africa and in other unfortunate regions of Planet Earth. Every single human life is sacred and precious, and all should be defended.

What do the warmongers desire? Do they hope that people, after being invaded, bombed, and oppressed, will quietly resume working, irrespective of their oppressors? As Paul Anderson wrote, in his beautiful novel Chronicles of the Polesotechnical League, “a corpse is never a good customer” (see 2004 article by Adriano V. Autino). People who have had their family exterminated will never forget. Each violent act gives birth to a never-ending feud, as demonstrated by thousands of ethnic, religious and economic conflicts throughout history (and in current military campaigns).

Yet, aside from hypocrisy, there are reasons for this eclipse of human consciousness – the Ukrainian crisis – to be highlighted (apart from other dastardly events), including the immense waste of human resources – money, lives, hopes, projects, physical and psychological energies – that could better be targeted to help achieve much more worthy goals for the benefit of humankind. And the real dangers represented by crises like the one in Ukraine could trigger an irreversible implosion of civilization – the greatest risk facing humanity, should our world remain confined within the boundaries of our mother planet (see the Thesis 1 of the 3rd SRI World Congress, 2021).

We are most concerned that, while we work to enable the evolution of our species into a trans-terrestrial civilization, some of the world’s leading political leaders are trapped in history. Instead of investing in the future, helping humanity to recover from a horrible pandemic, they are working now to enable an even worst calamity – a third world war. And we are not referring to dictators of remote inconsequential states, but rather the leaders of primary world Countries. But we cannot afford to remain disheartened, and must continue working to help humanity’s renaissance in space – even stronger than before.

As we have underscored in our social analysis work, this crisis has been generated through what we refer to as “the syndrome of the closed world”. And we want to emphasize this concern with urgency – most importantly, to the electors, world-wide: we must get rid of wars in the 21st Century! We have very much more important things to do! Let us achieve this goal by electing the most intelligent (not the most arrogant) individuals to help lead our nations!

Eight billions Earthers cannot successfully survive on only one planet, and the proliferation of frenetic leaders, unable to address this concern, can only exacerbate the global crisis.

More than ever, we now call upon the space community (and all sincere humanists) to speak out loud:

MAKE SPACE, NOT WAR!

Let’s support our industrial space vanguard – Space X, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, and other commercial space endeavors – our space agencies, and the global space movement, to help enable and advance (not impede) more collaborative and equitable space enterprise worldwide!

Let’s promote civilian space development and open the high frontier for all of humanity – NOW!

4 March 2022

Prof. Bernard Foing, SRI, President

Adriano V. Autino, SRI, Founder, VicePresident

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Reference links:

[1] A corpse is not a good customer!

[2] Thesis 1 of the 3rd SRI World Congress, 2021.