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 | (Source: Economist Impact) |
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A bit of history: the Cold War Era |
The Cold War marked a shift in the approach toward space. The interest in it was not purely scientific anymore. Space then represented a way to gain global power and dominate. But also, a new potential area of conflict. |
The U.S. and USSR got into a Space Race. From the launch of the Sputnik satellite to Apollo 11, the period was made of successes and setbacks. It was a high stakes geopolitical and technological competition. Each success in that domain proved superiority. This stays up to date. |
Space as a source of military power |
Space plays a key role in military operations and objectives. Satellites provide many capacities. These include: |
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All these capacities are crucial, especially in case of conflict. This is why states need to preserve them. But it is also why they want to develop means to destroy their potential enemy's capacities. |
Some states succeeded in satellite destruction. They used anti-satellites missiles (ASAT). China was the first to do so by destroying one of its satellites in 2007. The U.S., India, and Russia followed. Other means includes jamming and cyberattacks. |
Russia and China are also suspected to be develop "Killersats". These satellites would be able to approach others to damage or destroy them. They could create intentional collision or the use of powerful lasers. |
Many scenarios also fear the development and deployment of weapons into space that could hit targets on Earth (high energy lasers, high speed projectiles). In a way, this was the idea behind Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars" project during the Cold War. The project was to build a dome above the U.S. with satellites able to detect and intercept missiles. |
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| The Man Who Predicted the iPhone 17 Years Early Speaks Out |
George Gilder's track record is legendary. He gave Steve Jobs the iPhone idea in 1990. He foresaw Qualcomm's rise BEFORE it soared 2,600% in one year.
Both sounded ludicrous at the time, but there's a reason he's been called "America's #1 Futurist."
Now he believes a rare "super convergence" event will create more millionaires in the next few years than we've seen in decades.
A bombshell announcement scheduled just days from now could trigger it all.
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Get details on the 3 steps to take before the switch flips.
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Economic stakes behind space |
Apart from the military use of space, there are also high economic stakes. |
Rise of Newspace. Since the beginning of the century, more and more private actors got involved in space. To cite a few, these companies include: |
Elon Musk's Space X, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, OneWeb, Rocket lab.
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Private companies are changing space access and power dynamics. SpaceX managed to make space launches 5 times cheaper than they used to be. This made space more accessible. In the past 7 years, satellites in orbit grew from 2 000 to 11 000. More than half belongs to SpaceX's Starlink. But these actors also happen to play a key role in some conflicts. Ukraine is using Starlink services to support its civilian infrastructures, military, and field communications. |
This challenges the classic state-centric control on space. It raises concerns on data monopolies, satellite mega-constellations and launch market control. |
Economy's dependance. Global economy is highly reliant on what happens up there. Satellites play a key role in many areas of economy and finance. |
There are involved in navigation. If this capacity was destroyed, there would be consequences on all transport means. Maritime, air, and road transports would be disrupted. This would impact global movements of goods and people. |
There would also be impacts on communications. Television, phones, internet, so much relies on satellites. This would impact labor and financial systems everywhere. Consumption would also be hit. |
Another aspect to consider is the satellites role in the study of climate change. But also, in the way we prevent and address natural disasters. |
Potential resources offered by space. Space also offers different kinds of potential resources. Inhabited flights to space already exist. For now, there are only affordable by a few extra wealthy people. But the ultimate goal would be to develop space tourism. Musk even spoke about the concept of space hotels. |
There are also projects to exploit space resources. Asteroids mining could provide rare metals such as platinum, gold, and nickel silver. The Moon also has interesting frozen waters and Helium-3. The waters could be transformed into oxygen or fuel. The Helium-3 could be used as a source of nuclear energy. |
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A lack of regulation and associated risks |
There is a big lack of upgraded regulations on space. UN's regulations on the matter dates to last century. It does not consider the private actors. It also mostly focuses on the weapons of mass destruction. In fact, the treaties were signed during the Cold War era when nuclear was the biggest issue. But today, some modern assets would deserve to be added such as ASAT. They cause even more debris into space that could arm other satellites. |
Plus, as the number of satellites is increasing, there is a need for more regulation to manage space traffic and deorbiting. |
If these issues are not properly addressed, it could lead to incidents. Space is more and more crowded with active satellites and debris fragments. There is a high risk of collision. |
Decoding geopolitics isn't a job. It's survival. |
Joy |
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