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 [...]
The OUR-Space Peace Sculpture Project
Introducing a Cultural Dimension into the Space Environment Arthur R. Woods – Artist, Founder and President of the OURS Project. Member: I.A.A.A., I.S.A.S.T. Marco C. Bernasconi – OURS Vice President – Technical, Member: FBIS, A.I.A.A. Paper IAA-89-673 Presented at the 40th Congress of the International Astronautical Federation October 7-13, 1989 / Torremolinos, Spain Abstract Recent developments concerning the commercial use of outer space have made it possible for cultural events to take place in the space environment which can be seen and experienced by much of the world’s population. The opportunity to communicate to the global audience as well as [...]
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 Option: An Alternative to War
Arthur R. Woods Here on Earth, human civilization has reached such a point in its development where it has evolved the means to leave its home planet and to begin operating in the environment beyond the atmosphere. Optimistically, this development would enable humanity to utilize this technological capability to harness the infinite resources located off Earth to improve the well-being of the population in the decades and centuries ahead – both on Earth and beyond. On the other hand, this same capability could also be used to exert tyrannical control over much of the population thereby limiting [...]
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 [...]
Introducing a Cultural Dimension into the Space Environment Arthur R. Woods – Artist, Founder and President of the OURS Project. Member: I.A.A.A., I.S.A.S.T. Marco C. Bernasconi – OURS Vice President [...]
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 [...]
Arthur R. Woods Here on Earth, human civilization has reached such a point in its development where it has evolved the means to leave its home planet [...]
