AwaitingLaunch_1397728623369

"There are some who question the relevance of space activities in a developing
nation. To us, there is no ambiguity of purpose. We do not have the fantasy of
competing with the economically advanced nations in the exploration of the moon
or the planets or manned space-flight. But we are convinced that if we are to play
a meaningful role nationally, and in the community of nations, we must be second
to none in the application of advanced technologies to the real problems of man
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and society.“---- Dr. Vikram Sarabhai (dedication of Thumba to United
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Nations, Feb 02, 1968)
“The Moon could serve as a new and tremendous supplier of energy and resources
for human beings….This is crucial to sustainable development of human beings
on Earth….Whoever first conquers the Moon will benefit first….As for China,
it needs to adopt a strategy based on its concrete economic power and technology
level….We are also looking further out into the Solar System-to Mars." --
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OuyangZiyuan, chief scientist of China's Moon exploration programme
Further, the paradigm informing all three Asian space programmes is space
industrial development. The language of the Code stands in stark contrast to
ambitions expressed by space pioneers and visionaries such as India's Dr APJ
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Kalam, or China's Professor Wang Xiji, or recorded in Japan's Basic Space
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Plan for Space Policy, all of which see a vast expansion of on-orbit activities
with vast Space-Based Solar Power Satellites at the centre.
In sharp contrast, the language of the current code speaks of sustainability
more in the context of preserving the status quo than sustaining the
exponential growth curve necessary to lifting billions out of poverty and
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improving their prosperity with the vast wealth of the heavens, overly
securitised and largely tone-deaf to an ambitious agenda to use the vast
energy and material resources of space to solve “the real problems of man
and society” and provide vast abundance for all humanity.
And the abundance is truly vast. Industrialisation of space as imagined by the
visionaries of Asia's space pioneers unlocks untold material and energy
wealth. The scale of the energy wealth has been affirmed in the Pentagon's
Space-Based Solar Power Study, and more recently by the International
Academy of Astronautics (IAA) headed by a former ISRO chairman. And
the mineral wealth is staggering. Per the NASA public website responsible
for tracking Near Earth Asteroids states, “it has been estimated that the
mineral wealth resident in the belt of asteroids between the orbits of Mars
and Jupiter would be equivalent to about 100 billion dollars for every person
30 | Awaiting Launch: Perspectives on the Draft ICoC for Outer Space Activities