Space Quote: Should We Worry About Space Monopolies?

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Image by Jim Cooper from Pixabay

“The comparison I often like to make is with the East India Company: a private British enterprise that became so powerful it could shape the politics of nations and at times had an army twice the size of Britain’s. It began as trade; it ended in domination. Could a similar dynamic unfold locally in our solar system, where a handful of today’s tech giants and billionaires control access to orbit, communications, and eventually, extraterrestrial resources? A monopoly in space would be dangerous for humanity. The challenge is to encourage innovation and investment without ceding ownership of the cosmos to a few individuals or organisations.”

-Taken from a Guardian article titled “There’s a New Space Race – Will the Billionaires Win?” by Maggie Aderin-Pocock. One only needs to read the book series by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, starting with Leviathan Wakes, or watch the televised version, The Expanse, to have some idea of what the future may hold.

Space Quote: Another Theory Accounting for the Star of Bethlehem

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Image by Vicki Hamilton from Pixabay

“A comet could stay in one place if it was basically on a ‘collision course’ with Earth,…That’s exactly what you would expect of an object that’s going to pass very, very close to the Earth.”

-Statement by Mark Matney, a planetary scientist at NASA, as quoted in Scientific American. He has proposed in his paper that the Star of Bethlehem cited in the Bible may have been a “broom star,” or comet, spotted by Chinese astronomers in 5 B.C.E. In his paper, he concludes “…it is no longer justifiable to claim that ‘no astronomical event’ could possibly have behaved in the manner described by Matthew.”

Space Quote: China, the Moon, and the Military

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): China’s Chang’e-4 Lander on the Moon’s surface, as captured by the Yutu-2 rover in early 2019. (CNSA)

“Politically, China’s lunar program has demonstrated an ability to undertake cutting edge scientific programs, as demonstrated in the innovative Chang’e-4 and Chang’e-6 probes. In terms of direct military benefits, its value is more limited. China is not in a direct space race with any other state, nor is it racing to establish settlements or “space colonies.” While there are theories of how one might employ a lunar base to undertake surveillance or even kinetic operations against terrestrial targets, the costs associated with such ambitions would be enormous. Surveillance platforms on the Moon, for example, would be almost 240,000 miles from Earth. To obtain high resolution images would be enormously costly. It is not at all clear that such efforts would win a cost-benefit analysis against systems in standard earth orbits (LEO, MEO, GEO), or even air-breathing systems. Instead, the most likely military benefits are in terms of improvements in Chinese space support capabilities, thus expanding the volume of space employed for military purposes.”

-Statement by Dean Cheng, Senior Fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, from a hearing before the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee titled “Strategic Trajectories Assessing China’s Space Rise and the Risks to U.S. Leadership.” Mr. Cheng was one of four witnesses at the hearing.

Space Quote: Goddard Space Flight Center Threatened by Cuts

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Image (Credit): Sign for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. (NASA)

“…actions taken during the last nine months threaten the workers at Goddard and their ability to lead the world in this science and exploration. Between unnecessary voluntary separations, deferred resignations, reductions in force, and other pressure, thousands of civil servants and contractors are no longer working at GSFC. Other countries with space programs from our political allies to our adversaries have been recruiting our top scientists and researchers with massive salaries, research budgets, and the promise of stability. Where the US has considered stepping back, China has made clear they are eager to step in. We can and must re-invest in the people and centers that make America the global space leader and that starts with Goddard.”

-Statement in a November 13th letter from Maryland’s Senators and Representatives to NASA’s Acting Administrator Sean Duffy regarding recent cuts at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Maryland. The letter included four questions to be answered by November 17th.

Space Quote: The New Galileo, or Just a Dreamer?

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Credit: Mariner Books.

“This is an example from the modern world of what the Vatican did at the time of Galileo…People have their own prejudices. I don’t have any problem with that…The whole idea of doing science is to maintain an agnostic point of view, be curious, wonder over the possibilities…It’s what makes science exciting.”

-Statement by Israel-born Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb to The Times of Israel. He was referring to his submission of an academic paper about the 3I/ATLAS comet where the last sentence in the paper noted that the comet could be targeting our solar system. He was asked to remove this sentence if he wanted his paper to be published. Astronomer Loeb has made a number of controversial comments about this new comet as well as an earlier comet named ‘Oumuamua, which was the subject of his book Extraterrestrial:
The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth.