Background
for Teachers
It has been widely publicized that the Wright Brothers’ first
attempted flight on December 17, 1903, was shorter than the actual
length of today’s space shuttle vehicle. A little more the
fifty years later, on October 4, 1957, there was one man made object
in space: the Russian Sputnik 1. Within twenty years, approximately
4,500 objects in space were being tracked by N.O.R.A.D., North American
Air Defense. By the mid-1970s, about 25,000 objects were being tracked.
Today, the number of objects in space continues to multiply.
Biospherical
pollution, the mounting accumulation of debris in space and the
overpopulation of geosynchronous equatorial orbiting communications
satellites merely scratch the surface of the important and necessary
issues that underpin the need for an examination of humankinds’
venture into space. Weapons in Space; the Commercialization of
Space; Economic Justice in Space; Space Travel; and issues of
Space Law and Sovereignty also need to be seriously investigated.
An
already existing business in space is the satellite business.
This business is extremely profitable. In its infancy in 1985,
Europe alone made over 300 billion dollars from the launching
of satellites. One of the plusses for the satellite business is
that short term goals are met and large profits are realized.
Today, satellites are the crux of any global command and control
system. Satellites see, hear, and tell what they see and hear.
Will our Right to Privacy be destroyed by the satellites that
spy on us? Bear in mind, that as with any technological tool,
these satellites can be used for either benevolent or malevolent
purposes.
Outer
space is special because of its many unique properties. These
unique properties will be the incentive for commercializing space.
In outer space we find zero gravity, sterility, “free”
vacuum, control of magnetism, “free” solar energy,
and the lack of oxygen. Because of the way in which these properties
affect materials and processes, products that can be made on Earth
only in test quantities at extraordinarily high cost might become
viable commercially if produced in an orbiting space factory.
(Chemical and Engineering News; (Editorial); Nov.8, 1982; p.28f).
Hence, development of pharmaceuticals in space could conceivably
revolutionize medicine, because conditions that can be fabricated
only at great expense, if at all, in an earth bound laboratory
can readily be set up in space. In the future, it may be possible
that bio-medical research and commerce in space will introduce
a fabulously higher quality of life for human beings and other
species with which we share our planet. Certainly one of the ethical
questions lurking in the background regarding the issue of pharmaceutical
business in space is that of distributive justice.
There
is the possibility of enormous profits to be made from mining
the surface of other planet(s). And of course our “cosmic
beach”, the moon, presents even more variegated business
possibilities. But who owns the lunar surface? If we follow international
law, it would seem that Russia would own the moon. However, according
to Sec.1., Par.3., of the Declaration of Legal Principles (United
Nations) “outer space and celestial bodies are not subject
to national appropriation by claims of sovereignty, by means of
use or occupation, or by other means. Jenks, C. Wilfred; Space
Law; Frederick A. Praeger Publishers, N.Y. 1965; p.20. But
issues of sovereignty are not so easily settled. Questions that
surround the dictum that no one ought to own “space”
are not, when put to the test, easily answered. How we eventually
come to grips with this issue will have bearing on such activities
as the colonization of space stations, the moon, and other planet(s),
and in the immediate future, on the commercialization of space.
It takes little imagination to detect the ties between commercialization
and sovereignty.
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