As Star Trek reminds us, space is the final frontier. But is it the "final frontier"' of earthbound conflict - perhaps a power struggle between the United States and China?
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson spends a lot of time looking and thinking about space. He is the author of Space Chronicles and director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York. Neil and I spoke about geopolitics and space.
Here's the transcript:
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If you're looking for more from astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who was on GPS today, you can check out his Foreign Affairs article here (behind a pay wall) and/or order his book here.
Here's an excerpt of from his Foreign Affairs article:
By Fareed Zakaria, CNN
When you think of Switzerland, the image that comes to mind is pristine, clean, unlittered. In fact, no one dares litter in Switzerland for fear of a huge fine.
Well, now they've taken their cleanliness to a new level - out of this world, you might say. The Swiss have decided they are going to clean up outer space.
Clean Space One announced this week by the Swiss Space Center will be a "janitor satellite" whose mission will be to tidy up the upper atmosphere.
There are said to be more than 500,000 pieces of space junk up there. When they're done with space, I'd love for them to pay a visit to my office.
Editor's Note: Micah Zenko is a fellow for conflict prevention at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he blogs. You can also follow him on Twitter.
By Micah Zenko
In late June, six astronauts living on board the International Space Station (ISS), which orbits some 200 miles above the earth’s surface, received notice that a piece of space debris travelling 29,000 miles per hour would pass dangerously nearby. NASA officials calculated that the probability of the ISS being hit at around one in 360. (One in 10,000 is NASA’s nominal threshold for which it will authorize a “collision avoidance maneuver.”)
Normally, the ISS receives ample notice so that it can maneuver out of the pathway of potential space debris. However, with less than fifteen hours’ warning, the astronauts were forced to relocate to Soyuz space capsules for only the second time in the ISS’s thirteen-year history.
While the debris missed the space station by 1,100 feet, orbital space debris is a growing threat to civil, military, and commercial satellites in space.
By Tiffany Lam, CNNGo
"Getting away from it all" may be a travel marketing cliché, but the phrase might take on a whole new meaning come 2016.
Russian firm Orbital Technologies plans to open the first space hotel in history in five year's time. The space hotel, or "Commercial Space Station," as it's officially called, will float 250 miles above Earth.
The hotel can accommodate a maximum of seven people at a time. To check in, tourists will have to undergo special training that can take up to three months, depending on the type of spacecraft they fly to the hotel. The firm says that stays can range from three days to six months. FULL POST
Editor's Note: The following is an edited excerpt from a transcript of Fareed Zakaria answering viewer questions online.
We need to re-think the purpose of space missions.
For years the U.S. shuttle program has basically sent people up into the inner atmosphere, spun them around for a while, and then brought them back. We’ve been doing this now for 15 or 20 years. It’s not entirely clear what the point is. We’re not learning much more and it’s incredibly expensive at $1.5 billion per shuttle flight.
What we need to say to ourselves is: “The purpose of the space program is to learn more about the universe and to learn more about space and that is going to be the goal, not necessarily to have manned flight, not to necessarily to say we touched down on Mars.”
The goal has to be to figure out what is going on in the universe: Is there life out there? What can we learn about different galaxies? FULL POST
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Editor's Note: Elliot Pulham is chief executive officer of the Space Foundation. The following is reprinted from the Space Foundation with the permission of the author.
By Elliot Holokauahi Pulham
Today is scheduled to be the final Space Shuttle launch. It is the end of an era. It is not the end of the world.
I'll be the first to say that I am not happy that the United States is going into a "blackout" period whereby we will not be able to launch our own astronauts into space. But, I also think it's important to keep what's happening in perspective.
While it is true that the ultimate explorer is the human being, most of what goes on in space today does not involve - nor require - human passengers. In fact, in the entire space age thus far, fewer than 600 people have escaped our atmosphere, while hundreds of thousands of people earn a living through space endeavors every year. FULL POST
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