Part 2: Transforming the Fossil Fuel Age into the Space Energy Age
The Space Energy Option Humanity is at a crossroads: we must decide if we prefer to live and prosper in an energy-rich world or attempt to survive in an energy poor-one. Finding a viable solution to the impending energy and climate crises confronting humanity is urgently necessary. The fundamental causes of these interrelated issues are the many environmental and geopolitical issues associated with the continued use of fossil fuels added to the fact that these are projected to become harder to extract, to distribute, and are more conflict prone. Policies to reduce energy consumption, and inadequate measures currently being implemented [...]
Part 1: Enabling Peace off, with, and on Earth
The biggest obstacles to space development and to civilisation in general, are the wars over energy and other resources we are currently witnessing. The current period of shared prosperity, built upon and supported by a reliable global supply of fossil fuels is coming to an end. Today, more than two-thirds of the world’s traded fossil fuels comes from countries affected by war, sanctions, or blockades. This has made fossil fuel supplies increasingly limited and fragile, with a constant risk of further disruption. At the same time, easily available oil and mineral reserves are being depleted, economies are weak, debt is [...]
Innovative Technologies from Science Fiction for Space Applications
The idea that science fiction literature contained innovative technological ideas which could possibly be brought to a point of development with either today’s technology or possibly technology which was just around the corner was the driving force behind an European Space Agency (ESA) study entitled Innovative Technologies from Science Fiction (ITSF). David. Raitt, Patrick Gyger, Arthur Woods * Paper IAF-01-IAA.8.2.02 presented at the 52 International Astronautical Congress 1-5 Oct 2001 / Toulouse, France Abstract Ideas play an important role in science and technology, even when they do not have an immediately testable aspect, and writers have predicted satellites, [...]
Space Solutions to Terrestrial Problems
Most people intuitively assume and fundamentally believe that terrestrial problems must have terrestrial solutions. This is likely due to a lack of understanding about our interconnectedness and interdependence with the rest of the cosmos. As a terrestrially evolved organism, it is in our genes to adapt to our immediate environment as we have over millions of years. Only recently have we begun to become aware of how celestial events affect our lives. We now know that such events have been critically important to the evolution of life on Earth. Impacts of comets and asteroids most likely provided a young Earth [...]
Space and the Arts by David Raitt
This paper provides an overview of the relationship between space and art by discussing art that has been sent into space, orbital sculptures, art on Earth seen from space, and performance art and dance in zero gravity. The paper then provides an overview and discussion of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) involvement in some activities in this domain including the organization of science fiction and space art exhibitions and conferences, creation of a space arts database, setting up a space arts programme, and a study recently launched into how the European components of the International Space Station could be transformed [...]
Inflatable Technologies for Sculpture in Earth Orbit
A number of artists have made proposals for creating monumental artworks to be placed in Earth orbit which could be seen with unaided vision by those on Earth. While there has been a variety of technologies suggested most of the proposals have utilized some form of inflatable space technology. Echo 2 The idea of using inflatable structures goes back to the first Echo satellites launched by the US in the 60's - although a number of inflatable concepts for space applications pre-dated these satellites. These were passive communication satellites and carried no other payload. However, they were significant because, in [...]
The EarthSeeds Project
EarthSeeds - Humanity's Ultimate Purpose in the Evolution of Life The EarthSeeds art intervention is an open source, open space, open community astronautical art intervention. The EarthSeeds art intervention is designed to send the "Seeds of Earth" to other places in the solar system to help insure that Life will survive elsewhere if the conditions for its survival on Earth become inhospitable. It is based on the knowledge that in nature, the perpetuation and survival of all forms of life are maintained through the process of reproduction. The propagation of a species is the best way for it to survive and thrive in [...]
How Civilizations Choose to Fail or Succeed
In his book “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed”, Jared Diamond, a geologist, examines a number of ancient societies that have collapsed including, among others, Easter Island, the Mayan culture and the Norse settlements in Greenland. The keyword is: “choose”. The Space Option concept implies that a choice related to space exists for humanity that has do with the success of our civilization. The Space Option Space noun 1. the unlimited or incalculably great three-dimensional realm or expanse in which all material objects are located and all events occur. 2. beyond the atmosphere of the earth. Option noun [...]
More Space or More War?
The main point of this article is about the use of space technologies either for peace or for war and how that choice may influence the implementation of The Space Option. Simply stated, humanity must soon make a choice between “more space” or “more war”. At a very early age I became aware of the “cosmic choice” which is inherent in space technology illustrated in this image. A Redstone mobile guided ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead is pictured in the photo on the left. In the right photo we see the lift-off of the Mercury-Redstone carrying the Alan Shepard, [...]
Making Cosmic Choices
If one believes that other technological civilizations have appeared throughout the Cosmos, then one can speculate they must have faced a similar choice that confronts humanity at this particular moment in its history. Did these distant civilizations decide to use their technology and knowledge to extend their civilization beyond their home planet in order to perpetuate their species, or did they misuse their technology and knowledge and let their civilization decline and their future be destroyed? This situation is called the Cosmic Choice – a decision which any technological species must make about its future at a critical point in [...]
The Space Energy Option Humanity is at a crossroads: we must decide if we prefer to live and prosper in an energy-rich world or attempt to survive in an energy [...]
The biggest obstacles to space development and to civilisation in general, are the wars over energy and other resources we are currently witnessing. The current period of shared prosperity, built [...]
The idea that science fiction literature contained innovative technological ideas which could possibly be brought to a point of development with either today’s technology or possibly technology which was just [...]
Most people intuitively assume and fundamentally believe that terrestrial problems must have terrestrial solutions. This is likely due to a lack of understanding about our interconnectedness and interdependence with the [...]
This paper provides an overview of the relationship between space and art by discussing art that has been sent into space, orbital sculptures, art on Earth seen from space, and [...]
A number of artists have made proposals for creating monumental artworks to be placed in Earth orbit which could be seen with unaided vision by those on Earth. While there [...]
EarthSeeds - Humanity's Ultimate Purpose in the Evolution of Life The EarthSeeds art intervention is an open source, open space, open community astronautical art intervention. The EarthSeeds art intervention is designed to send [...]
In his book “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed”, Jared Diamond, a geologist, examines a number of ancient societies that have collapsed including, among others, Easter Island, the [...]
The main point of this article is about the use of space technologies either for peace or for war and how that choice may influence the implementation of The Space [...]
If one believes that other technological civilizations have appeared throughout the Cosmos, then one can speculate they must have faced a similar choice that confronts humanity at this particular moment [...]
