Perhaps you remember being told in 1992 that if Bill Clinton got elected, there would be "no Star Wars." You might thus be surprised to learn that the U.S. government recently allotted $75 million dollars toward production of anti-satellite weapons. Clinton had requested $30 million, but the Republican-controlled Congress generously more than doubled that sum.
What branch of government, other than the military, gets twice as many dollars as it asked for?
The recently approved legislation, misleadingly entitled "Defend America 1996," calls for deployment of space-based weapons by 2003. Tests are scheduled for 1998 or earlier.
Space battle stations are expected to become operational within six or seven years. They will be armed with direct-energy weapons, lasers and other high-tech killing devices, all aimed at the satellites of potential enemies. They will also be pointed at you and me.
Those eager to militarize space never tire of seeking new justifications. Lately, they've begun calling for funds to defend Earth from our newest designated enemy: asteroids. From the Soviets, to terrorists, to leaders of "rogue countries," to asteroids... we've got to have enemies in order to have rationales for developing new generations of weapons.
Not one nation-state leader has had the courage to call for a ban on space-based weapons, even though everyone knows they are ridiculously expensive, highly destabilizing, brain-draining, unworkable, and unnecessary. Billions of dollars will soon be spent on weapons systems that can't protect a single person from a suitcase bomb or from chemical and bacterial warfare.
Space is meant to be a peaceful sanctuary in which world relationships can be nourished. We don't need space-based weapons for jobs, profits, or security. We do need the opportunities and benefits directly available from our evolution into space.
We don't even have to close down entire military bases or lose aerospace jobs. But we must ensure that the skilled people currently working on space weapons projects are redirected to work that serves humanity rather than threatening it with annihilation.
We can stimulate our economy and expand job opportunities by investing in civilian space programs. Recently, for example, about 2000 jobs were created when Lockheed won the contract to build a reusable and inexpensive space ship.
Cultures of the world do need to be protected and made to feel secure. This can happen, however, only if we transform the age-old war game into a gigantic new space game that enhances communication.
Space is the only sort of game huge enough to offer attractions more enticing than those of the war games our children are playing on their computers. Space also provides even greater challenges and dramas than does war.
Do we have time to establish ourselves as a collective world body- the necessary precondition to stopping the war game? I'm not sure. It might happen if we make a plan and start networking now. Failure to act guarantees that we will have no future.
There will be only one chance to obtain a world ban on weapons in space. It can only happen before the first gun has been brandished on the "high frontier." Once weapons are deployed in space, it will be impossible for ordinary civilians to monitor them or to verify their removal.
But because we have already begun to play the new space game, it shouldn't be too difficult to continue moving towards survival. Today, humans live and work in space, increasingly as teams comprised of representatives from various parts of the earth. For example, astronauts from several countries recently broke a record by orbiting the globe for 16 days aboard a U.S. space shuttle. Russians still hold the record for living in space. Their Mir space station was continuously occupied for nearly four years, and it hosted numerous visitors from other countries.
A few months ago, the Galileo probe, studied by numerous world citizens, successfully completed its fly-by of Ganymede, one of Jupiter's moons. And the coming months will see the launch of an international space station, sponsored by 13 countries and envisioned as a permanent orbiting science institute. Some day soon, we will be able to visit space resorts, study in space schools, work in space factories and on space farms, and be treated in space hospitals.
Such endeavors help break down walls and nourish friendships. They are the antithesis of weaponry, which erects barriers, feeds fear and foments hatred.
I am honored to have replaced the late scientist/futurist Dr. Isaac Asimov as coordinator of the World Space Commission for the World Government of World Citizens. I hope that everyone reading this article will send me your thoughts, recommendations and light. This is a critical moment.
I can be reached at 424 Manzanita Ave., Ventura, CA 93001; e-mail: rosin@west.net.