“Race for resources” in astrospace: What does the future hold?
The paper analyses how a fast advance in technology can ease both discovering and exploitation of alternative energy resources available in space, and at the same time can open new long-term conflicts over supremacy in commercialisation of space resources. The author considers viability of...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Institute of International Politics and Economics, Belgrade
2015-01-01
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| Series: | Međunarodni Problemi |
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| Online Access: | http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0025-8555/2015/0025-85551504304F.pdf |
| Summary: | The paper analyses how a fast advance in technology can ease both discovering
and exploitation of alternative energy resources available in space, and at
the same time can open new long-term conflicts over supremacy in
commercialisation of space resources. The author considers viability of
actual and planned projects of members of the prestigious club of “space
nations”-the United States, Japan, Russia and the European Union. Global
energy demand growth stimulates technologically advanced countries to explore
more intensively the technical feasibility and economic viability of
renewable energy sources in space. Along with advancement in space technology
in the foreseeable future, astro-resources could be used as an alternative or
at least a supplement to the existing resource base. The author argues that
the increasing space technology ambitions of China, India and, to some extent
Iran, create a potential knot of new geopolitical and geoeconomical
international conflicts. In conclusion, the author emphasizes that the
extraterrestrial sources for the Earth's energy needs will not only stay an
important alternative basis for energy security in decades to come, but space
itself is likely to become rather a new battlefield of the great powersʼ
strategic interests than a part of the common heritage of mankind, equally
accessible to all nations. |
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| ISSN: | 0025-8555 2406-0690 |