The new space race is here. Will it look like the ’60s — or the 16th century?
globalnews.caThe overwhelming, deafening, cataclysmic roar erupted and hurtled the Saturn V rocket — as tall as a 36-storey building — into the sky and then beyond.
Four days later the first person to visit another celestial body uttered the words now etched into our species’ history.
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Neil Armstrong’s famous phrase, on July 21, 1969, was the culmination of a decade of American research and ingenuity — and billions of dollars. It sealed victory for the United States over the Soviet Union in a competition to land someone on the moon, a prestigious moment during heightened geopolitical tensions.
Many countries — and companies — are now starting or renewing their space programs, competing to reach the Moon’s South Pole, where there might be ice, and then Mars.
The United States (and aligned countries, including Canada) are hoping to land humans back on the moon by 2025, the Chinese by 2030.
India’s lunar lander could touch down on Wednesday while Russia’s was scheduled to try on Monday, but crashed.
A space law expert said the new space race might again look like the 1960s.
But he also warned it could more closely resemble European countries’ scramble to colonize new territory in the 16th and 17th centuries.
“Economic exploitation is something which causes competition and eventually leads to conflict and then destruction,” McGill professor Ram Jakhu told Global News.
“We should not expect governments or private companies to behave differently in space.”
Jakhu said there are trillions — not millions or billions — of dollars in potential resources at stake. Minerals and metals like iron, uranium, rare earth metals and a rare element called hellum-3, which is expected to play a
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