The Geopolitics of Space Colonization

The Geopolitics of Space Colonization PDF Author: Bohumil Doboš
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000960358
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 148

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Book Description
This book presents a geopolitical analysis of the upcoming human exploration of celestial bodies in the inner solar system by the major space powers. It utilizes a systemic approach to the analysis of political events in space to develop a comprehensive overview of the factors influencing planned or proposed missions to the selected objects – the Moon, Mars, and asteroids. As a result of this analysis, the book establishes forward-looking scenarios of possible developments to highlight the main fault lines of the upcoming operations beyond the currently most heavily utilized terrestrial orbits. This framework is rooted in a holistic overview of factors relevant to the mid-term settlement and mining efforts and allows us to highlight the main focal points that will determine the future power distribution inside the inner solar system. The methodology is based on the analysis of an interplay of numerous factors deemed crucial for the decision-making of the major space powers and their capacities to promote their interests in a given region. Major space powers are, for the purpose of this book, understood as those actors with a realistic ability to participate in or lead the inner solar system colonization and mining missions in the mid-term future for which scenario-making is the most suitable. Given the realities of space travel, however, smaller actors are also taken into consideration as a part of cooperative efforts which are, nonetheless, dominated by the major players or, alternatively, as possible spoilers of the efforts in several regional settings. The book thus provides an in-depth analysis of the possible futures regarding the nearing competition over the celestial bodies This book will be of much interest to students of space power and policy, geopolitics, airpower, and International Relations.

The Geopolitics of Space Colonization

The Geopolitics of Space Colonization PDF Author: Bohumil Doboš
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000960358
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 148

Get Book

Book Description
This book presents a geopolitical analysis of the upcoming human exploration of celestial bodies in the inner solar system by the major space powers. It utilizes a systemic approach to the analysis of political events in space to develop a comprehensive overview of the factors influencing planned or proposed missions to the selected objects – the Moon, Mars, and asteroids. As a result of this analysis, the book establishes forward-looking scenarios of possible developments to highlight the main fault lines of the upcoming operations beyond the currently most heavily utilized terrestrial orbits. This framework is rooted in a holistic overview of factors relevant to the mid-term settlement and mining efforts and allows us to highlight the main focal points that will determine the future power distribution inside the inner solar system. The methodology is based on the analysis of an interplay of numerous factors deemed crucial for the decision-making of the major space powers and their capacities to promote their interests in a given region. Major space powers are, for the purpose of this book, understood as those actors with a realistic ability to participate in or lead the inner solar system colonization and mining missions in the mid-term future for which scenario-making is the most suitable. Given the realities of space travel, however, smaller actors are also taken into consideration as a part of cooperative efforts which are, nonetheless, dominated by the major players or, alternatively, as possible spoilers of the efforts in several regional settings. The book thus provides an in-depth analysis of the possible futures regarding the nearing competition over the celestial bodies This book will be of much interest to students of space power and policy, geopolitics, airpower, and International Relations.

The Geopolitics of Space Exploration

The Geopolitics of Space Exploration PDF Author: Marcello Spagnulo
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 303069125X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
This is the tale of the modern Space Age, detailing all the risks, rewards and rivalries that have fueled space exploration over the decades. Jump into a world of ambitious entrepreneurs and determined spacefaring nations, of secret spy satellites and espionage, of all the cooperative and competing interests vying for dominance in ways little known to the public. Written by an Italian aeronautical engineer with over thirty years of experience in government and private industry, this English translation explains how and why the game has fundamentally evolved and where it is headed next. Exploring such topics as GPS and cyberspace, the economics of private and public industry and the political motivations of emerging spacefaring powerhouses like China, this book is an engaging foray into the ongoing battle for our terrestrial home through extraterrestrial means.

Dark Skies

Dark Skies PDF Author: Daniel Deudney
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019090335X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 450

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Book Description
Space is again in the headlines. E-billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are planning to colonize Mars. President Trump wants a "Space Force" to achieve "space dominance" with expensive high-tech weapons. The space and nuclear arms control regimes are threadbare and disintegrating. Would-be asteroid collision diverters, space solar energy collectors, asteroid miners, and space geo-engineers insistently promote their Earth-changing mega-projects. Given our many looming planetary catastrophes (from extreme climate change to runaway artificial superintelligence), looking beyond the earth for solutions might seem like a sound strategy for humanity. And indeed, bolstered by a global network of fervent space advocates-and seemingly rendered plausible, even inevitable, by oceans of science fiction and the wizardly of modern cinema-space beckons as a fully hopeful path for human survival and flourishing, a positive future in increasingly dark times. But despite even basic questions of feasibility, will these many space ventures really have desirable effects, as their advocates insist? In the first book to critically assess the major consequences of space activities from their origins in the 1940s to the present and beyond, Daniel Deudney argues in Dark Skies that the major result of the "Space Age" has been to increase the likelihood of global nuclear war, a fact conveniently obscured by the failure of recognize that nuclear-armed ballistic missiles are inherently space weapons. The most important practical finding of Space Age science, also rarely emphasized, is the discovery that we live on Oasis Earth, tiny and fragile, and teeming with astounding life, but surrounded by an utterly desolate and inhospitable wilderness stretching at least many trillions of miles in all directions. As he stresses, our focus must be on Earth and nowhere else. Looking to the future, Deudney provides compelling reasons why space colonization will produce new threats to human survival and not alleviate the existing ones. That is why, he argues, we should fully relinquish the quest. Mind-bending and profound, Dark Skies challenges virtually all received wisdom about the final frontier.

Geopolitics of the Outer Space

Geopolitics of the Outer Space PDF Author: Bohumil Doboš
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319968572
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 138

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Book Description
This book presents a comprehensive geopolitical analysis of European space activities. By studying outer space as a physical and socio-economic space as well as a military-diplomatic area, the author helps readers understand outer space as a geopolitical environment. The book also offers insights into the behavior and strategies of different actors, with a special focus on the European space strategy and the nature of the European space program and diplomacy.

Dark Skies

Dark Skies PDF Author: Daniel Deudney
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0190903341
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 465

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Book Description
"Dark Skies is the first work to assess the full impacts of space expansion, past, present and future. Thinking about space, and the visions fervently promoted by the global space movement, are dominated by geographic misperceptions and utopian illusions. The parts of space where almost all activity has occurred are part of the planet Earth, its astrosphere, and are, in practical terms, smaller than the atmosphere. Contrary to frontier visions, orbital space is already congested and degraded with dangerous space debris. The largest impact of actual space activities is an increased likelihood of catastrophic nuclear war stemming from the use of orbital space and space technology to lob nuclear weapons at intercontinental distances. Building large-scale orbital infrastructures will probably require or produce world government. The ultimate goal of space advocates, the colonization of Mars and asteroids, is promoted to guarantee the survival of humanity if major catastrophes strike Earth. But the spread of humanity into a multi-planet species will likely produce an interstate anarchy highly prone to total war, with Earth having many disadvantages. Altering the orbits of asteroids, a readily achievable technology vital for space colonization, also makes possible 'planetoid bombs' with destructive potentials millions of times great than all nuclear weapons. The biological diversification of humanity into multiple species, anticipated by space advocates, will further stoke interworld wars. Astrocide - the extinction of humanity resulting from significant space expansion - must join the lengthening list of potential threats to human survival. Large-scale space expansion should be relinquished in favour of an Earth-oriented space program of arms control and planetary security. Dark Skies is the first work to assess the full impacts of space expansion, past, present and future. Thinking about space, and the visions fervently promoted by the global space movement, are dominated by geographic misperceptions and utopian illusions. The parts of space where almost all activity has occurred are part of the planet Earth, its astrosphere, and are, in practical terms, smaller than the atmosphere. Contrary to frontier visions, orbital space is already congested and degraded with dangerous space debris. The largest impact of actual space activities is an increased likelihood of catastrophic nuclear war stemming from the use of orbital space and space technology to lob nuclear weapons at intercontinental distances. Building large-scale orbital infrastructures will probably require or produce world government. The ultimate goal of space advocates, the colonization of Mars and asteroids, is promoted to guarantee the survival of humanity if major catastrophes strike Earth. But the spread of humanity into a multi-planet species will likely produce an interstate anarchy highly prone to total war, with Earth having many disadvantages. Altering the orbits of asteroids, a readily achievable technology vital for space colonization, also makes possible 'planetoid bombs' with destructive potentials millions of times great than all nuclear weapons. The biological diversification of humanity into multiple species, anticipated by space advocates, will further stoke interworld wars. Astrocide - the extinction of humanity resulting from significant space expansion - must join the lengthening list of potential threats to human survival. Large-scale space expansion should be relinquished in favour of an Earth-oriented space program of arms control and planetary security"--

Space Capitalism

Space Capitalism PDF Author: Peter Lothian Nelson
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319746510
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
This book compares and contrasts the motivations, morality, and effectiveness of space exploration when pursued by private entrepreneurs as opposed to government. The authors advocate market-driven, private initiatives take the lead through enhanced competition and significant resources that can be allocated to the exploration and exploitation of outer space. Space travel and colonisation is analysed through the prism of economic freedom and laissez faire capitalism, in a unique and accessible book.

War in Space

War in Space PDF Author: Bowen Bleddyn E. Bowen
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 1474450512
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
Applying strategic theory to outer space and drawing out the implications for international relationsOffers a definitive and original vision of space warfare that theorises often-overlooked aspects of contemporary space activities based in the discipline of Strategic Studies. This original research draws out the implications of spacepower for wider debate in grand strategy and IR.Applies the theory in a topical and contentious area within contemporary grand strategy - anti-access and area-denial warfare in the Taiwan Strait between China and America.Key principles are summarised in seven propositions to make the key take-aways of theory applicable and memorable for researchers and practitioners.This book presents a theory of spacepower and considers the implications of space technology on strategy and international relations. The spectre of space warfare stalks the major powers as outer space increasingly defines geopolitical and military competition. As satellites have become essential for modern warfare, strategists are asking whether the next major war will begin or be decided in outer space. Only strategic theory can explore the decisiveness and effects of war in space upon `grand strategy' and international relations. The author applies the wisdom of military strategy to outer space, and presents a compelling new vision of Earth orbit as a coastline, rather than an open ocean or an extension of airspace as many have assumed. Rooted in the classical military works of Clausewitz, Mahan, and Castex to name a few, this book presents comprehensive principles for strategic thought about space that explain the pervasive and inescapable influence of spacepower on strategy and the changing military balance of the 21st century.

Astropolitik

Astropolitik PDF Author: Everett C. Dolman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135763992
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
This volume identifies and evaluates the relationship between outer-space geography and geographic position (astrogeography), and the evolution of current and future military space strategy. In doing so, it explores five primary propositions.

Securing Outer Space

Securing Outer Space PDF Author: Natalie Bormann
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134044836
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 472

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Book Description
The challenges that space poses for political theory are profound. Yet until now, the exploration and utilization of space has generally reflected – but not challenged – the political patterns and impulses which characterized twentieth-century politics and International Relations. This edited volume analyses a number of controversial policies, and contentious strategies which have promoted space activities under the rubric of exploration and innovation, militarization and weaponization, colonization and commercialization. It places these policies and strategies in broader theoretical perspective in two key ways. Firstly, it engages in a reading of the discourses of space activities: exposing their meaning-producing practices; uncovering the narratives which convey certain space strategies as desirable, inevitable and seamless. Secondly, the essays suggest ways of understanding, and critically engaging with, the effects of particular space policies. The essays here seek to ‘bring back space’ into the realm of International Relations discourse, from which it has been largely removed, marginalized and silenced. The various chapters do this by highlighting how activities in outer space are always connected to earth-bound practices and performances of the every day. Securing Outer Space will be of great interest to students of space power, critical security studies and IR theory.

Entering Space

Entering Space PDF Author: Robert Zubrin
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1585420360
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
"Robert Zubrin is a true engineering genius like the heroic engineers of the past." --Frederick Turner, American Enterprise Using nuts-and-bolts engineering and a unique grasp of human history, Robert Zubrin takes us to the not-very-distant future, when our global society will branch out into the universe. From the current-day prospect of lunar bases and Mars settlements to the outer reaches of other galaxies, Zubrin delivers the most important and forward-looking work on space and the true possibilities of human exploration since Carl Sagan's Cosmos. Sagan himself said of Zubrin's humans-to-Mars plan, "Bob Zubrin really, nearly alone, changed our thinking on this issue." With Entering Space, he takes us further, into the prospect of human expansion to the outer planets of our own solar system--and beyond.