Current Events Week 1: The New Space Race

 (Look below Harish's post to find summary of Russian Protests for Navalny)

by Andre Wang

The New Space Race

Related Course Themes:

1. Is history shaped more by individual people or by systemic forces beyond any one person’s influence
2. To what extent do international institutions serve the interests of global elite, or specific nation states, or of humanity generally
3. How has technological change affected the course of social, political, and economic history
4. What are the challenges and benefits of the historical trend towards economic and environmental interdependence?

   

"The first space race was a competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union for national pride and military advantage. Now NASA is farming out missions to private companies, and other countries have joined the race — notably China and India. The moon and Mars remain tantalizing goals for many nations, as are the technological advances that space exploration can drive." - Washington Post

In addition to countries flying to space, private companies are now flying to space ( SpaceX, Boeing, Blue Origin ) - bringing down the cost of traveling to space. Much like how the first space race was fueled by political differences between the Soviets and the US, it seems that the impending one could also be influenced by nations wanting to assert political dominance. Instead of this being between the Russians and US, it's now mostly between the Chinese and US. China has recently poured in huge sums of money in the last few decades in order to support the in the last couple of decades. Other players involved include the ESA, ( European Space Agency ) UAE, ( United Arab Emirates ) and India. 

I actually had the opportunity to discuss problems with outer space treaties and the current state of the space race in a ( Model United Nations ) conference at Berkeley. The specific committee I was in was UNOOSA. ( United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs ) Although most of the people there were experienced delegates ( seniors ), and my partner and I were first timers ( freshmen ), it gave me a huge insight into current international affairs in Outer Space. Specifically, our committee addressed two topics: militarization of space, and inequality in space. While these topics may seem trivial at first glance, further research leads one to believe that not addressing these topics could result in major catastrophes and a larger economic and power gap between developed and developing countries. "Over 2,000 operational satellites are in orbit around Earth, providing a wealth of services to humanity. They form the backbone of our society, the 'infrastructure of our infrastructure.' Satellites provide critical timing data to global financial institutions, strategic data to militaries, data services to telecoms. If all satellites were to vanish suddenly, society could very well collapse" ( BMUN executive summary ) In terms of space inequality, asteroid mining in the future was the main topic of discussion. Although asteroid mining currently is largely expensive and doesn't make sense economically, "Space mining could become a real thing — and it could be worth trillions. Minerals that lie in the belt of asteroids between Mars and Jupiter hold mineral wealth equivalent to about $100 billion for every individual on Earth." (CNBC) The question is, with the current state of space in which a few countries dominate the scene, how will we prevent asteroid mining from only benefiting a few countries and leaving others ini the dust?

Questions to Consider:

1. How do you think affairs in outer space will effect international politics and national affairs between and within countries?
2. What would you propose for a solution towards the two issues? ( militarization and inequality in space ) Say you are China or the US, how would that effect your view in what is the best way to solve the problem? What if you are a developing country? ( Egypt or Argentina )
3. How can you tie back ideas in this post to the related course themes?