WHAT Others Experienced Eventually some will burn up in Earth’s atmosphere while others will be sent into “graveyard orbit” or to the Spacecraft Cemetery in the Pacific Ocean. Space junk could be considered a cost of doing business. But as sands shift from humanitarian toward more commercial ambitions, our world will face a panoply of new socio-eonomic, political, environmental and ethical challenges. The business of space can’t be left to “business as usual,” where social and environmental costs are externalized to society. What do the concepts “external” and “society” even mean in space? We have to consider the broader context in which we live—our solar system, our galaxy (which may contain tens of billions of solar systems) and beyond—and the odds against being alone in this vastness. What we find in space will change how we define ourselves, and our existence. Then there is the consciousness that believes the planet itself is disposable. According to U.C. Davis professor of psychology Albert Harrison: “You see this idea over and over when space exploration is discussed, the idea that we can leave behind the problems that plague society here on Earth and we create these wonderful new societies in space.” But as NASA astronaut Yvonne Cagle once put it to me: “The most challenging part will be the human challenge— the inner landscape, not the outer one.” So it will be with the business of space, whether in public or private sectors. Unleashing into space the same consciousness that’s jeopardizing the well-being of all Life on Earth, that’s developing the technologies of creation and destruction faster than we can agree on the ethics to handle them, is a risk we can’t afford to take. Only by developing a consciousness that recognizes the oneness of a living, coherent Universe can we truly prosper from a space economy. The question now is: can we reach a point where the frictions on Earth will not be transferred to space? Paul Kostek, IEEE for SciTech Europa It’s our destiny to become a space-faring civilization. Stasis is not an option for our species, and innovations motivated by the space economy can profoundly benefit our attempts to regenerate Earth. The 50th anniversary of the first moonwalk is a good opportunity to notice that what’s called for is not just a thoughtful space economy, but a conscious one. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty, signed by 105 countries via the United Nations, declared that celestial territories are not subject to “national appropriation,” and that space is the province of all mankind, that the exploration of space must benefit all mankind. While still valid, it’s largely unenforceable and strained by the U.S. Space Act of 2015, which allows U.S. citizens to engage in commercial exploration and exploitation of space resources—creating a loophole since companies are not countries. (NatGeo’s Mars series imagined the dire consequences for a budding human colony when government scientists were bound by the protective restrictions and regulations of international treaties, while private entrepreneurs and space companies were not.) As we “democratize” access to outer space, how will we also democratize the benefits of the space economy for all of life on Earth? How will we navigate the newly complex social and moral questions we’re sure to encounter, especially as we encounter other life forms? Addressing these questions will require an inner expansion of consciousness to lead our outer expansion. Any advance in consciousness that makes us better citizens in space will also make us better human beings at home. “I think we’re going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth within a decade, and I think we’re going to have definitive evidence within 20 to 30 years.” Ellen Stofan, NASA Former Chief Scientist (2015) International Space Station ©NASA Image and Video Library
Claudia Welss is Chairman of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), founded by Apollo 14 astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell, and Founding Chair of Invest in Yourself at Nexus Global Youth Summit and Network, bridging practical consciousness research with philanthropy, impact investing, activism, and social innovation. A citizen scientist, entrepreneur, donor and impact investor, Claudia leads or advises innovative projects with the potential to accelerate large-scale change, like World Future Coin, HeartMath’s Global Coherence Initiative, consciousspaceeconomy.org, and Flow Genome Project. Previously, she pioneered the concept of collaboration labs by founding NextNow Collaboratory, once described by the director of MIT’s Center for Collective Intelligence as a “new kind of collective intelligence.” Claudia was invited to join a five-year “Peace-building Through Business” inquiry at the Fetzer Institute while she was director of the University of California, Berkeley Haas School‘s center for designing and delivering strategic learning programs for corporations, where she was also initiating social responsibility and sustainability curriculum. This experience led her to explore consciousness as the most powerful leverage point for inspiring regenerative culture. 55