A different race: Space as a strategic alternative
- Paper ID
IAF-88-475
- author
- company
Ad Astra Ltd.
- country
U.S.A.
- year
1988
- abstract
He marches to the beat of a different drummer. - Thoreau This paper discusses using space as a strategic alternative to the nuclear arms race. Space used in this fashion will be beneficial to many nations in that it promotes economic growth, stimulates science, technology and the arts. The chance for global cooperation and strategic nuclear disarmament coupled with economic growth, the improvement in the quality of the environment and the exploration of a frontier are motivating reasons for starting to build the infrastructure for space industrialization. The infrastructure of a nation is the foundation of that nation's ability to: compete in world markets, maintain a credible deterrence, influence other nations, and create surpluses for use in social programs. Part of the infrastructure that a nation will depend on economically and militarily in the 21st Century will be located in space. That infrastructure and the program to create it, if used creatively by the proper politician or statesman could be used as a deterrent in lieu of nuclear weapons. Developing economically productive resources in space would strengthen a country's economy and force opponents to make significant structural changes in their military, political and economic systems. Space is becoming an increasingly valuable economic opportunity for various companies and countries.- Prior to the recent emphasis on space industrialization it was the 20th century equivalent of the medieval tournament or jousting contest. However there are many other uses and motivating reasons for a country to develop a strong capability to work in space. Some of those reasons while self-serving to the country can with vision result in many benefits to other less developed countries and mankind in general. A new concept of strategic deterrence is outlined which is based on having national assets such as surveillance, command, control and communication embedded in the infrastructure needed to support a robust commercial space program. The infrastructure development and deployment would be funded under a policy of economic conversion which would re-programing money from the development and deployment of strategic offensive weapons to developing the facilities and capabilities needed for the exploration and industrialization of space. Strategic factors such as survivability, communications and strong economies are discussed from the standpoint of them being components of a strong civilian commercial economy which supply services to the military rather than them being exclusive non-productive functions of a military-defense industry system. The concept of commercial, economic and technological strategic deterrence based on a nation's ability to pioneer the space frontier is introduced. An outline of the different race concept is presented followed by a short review of strategic factors other than MAD . Then the concept of A Different Race is extended, realizing that we do not live in a peaceful utopia, to the needs of providing a deterrent to offensive initiatives using conventional weapons. After having established a context, the topics of economic growth and economic conversion are discussed. Motivating reasons and technical initiatives are then outlined. A number of macro-projects such as: anti-matter production facilities, satellite power systems to provide energy as a form of foreign aid and communications and information distribution are briefly described. The paper closes with a discussed of how memes can be used to propagate the concepts of A Different Race.