Projecting Humanity into the Far Reaches of Outer
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UN Day 2020 Crisis Brief
Projecting Humanity into the Far Reaches of Outer
Space
Kaitlyn Keith
ODU Model United Nations Society
Introduction: Deep Space 2020
gravity and enter deep space, the region beyond
Humanity has only skimmed the smallest our solar system. Today Voyager One is over 14
surface of just the solar system, let alone the million miles from Earth.3 Even now the
universe. With current science, including visual possibility of sending people so far seems
and radio astronomy, only four percent of the fantastic. But this situation may be about to
visible universe has been explored, covering the change very rapidly.
visible solar system, interstellar space, and
nebulas. With technological advancements and
the desire to uncover one of the universe’s most
questioned subjects, interstellar communication,
travel, and defense has become an ever-growing
subject.
The year 2020 is the fifteenth anniversary of
humans in space. In the years since 1961 when
Yuri Gagarin became the first human in outer
space, 566 people from 41 countries have risen
above the Earth’s atmosphere, and 12 have
travelled as far as the Moon.1 None have gone
Voyager 1 in leaves the solar system
further. Even astronauts on the International
Space Station go no further than Low Earth
Could colonizing Mars be in the near future? Is
Orbit, roughly 220 miles (350 kilometers) above
the space between stars travelable? Are
the planet’s surface.2 Only unmanned probes
individual breakthroughs in the field beneficial
have travelled to other planets. The International
or harmful for society as a whole? As we
Telecommunication Union (ITU) defines ‘deep
struggle to go further, can space exploration
space’ to start at 2 million km (1.4 million
overcome the limits of traditional chemically
miles) from Earth. Only in 2012 did the first
propelled rockets and the barrier of the speed of
artificial probe—Voyager One, launched in
light? Are the breakthroughs humanity already
1977— reach beyond the Sun’s immediate
has achieved the limit on what is possible? Is
1 ‘List of space travelers by name’, Wikipedia, 2 ‘Higher Altitude Improves Station's Fuel
n.d., Economy’, International Space Station, 14
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_space_trave February 20111,
lers_by_name ; ‘List of Apollo astronauts’, https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/exp
Wikipedia, n.d., editions/expedition26/iss_altitude.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Apollo 3 ‘Voyager’, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 5
astronauts October 2020,
https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status/
Projecting Humanity into
the Far Reaches of Outer Space
international competition going to be too States and the International
difficult to sustain? Community?
● Will the governments of UN Member
This Old Dominion MUN Crisis Brief covers States respect the GoE’s
basic technologies and issues of interstellar recommendations? Will they follow the
communication, travel, and defense, both older leadership of Secretary-General António
and new technological advances, and how one Guterres and the GoE
improves the field. The universe is
incomprehensibly vast, but humanity’s first Forms of Interstellar Science
steps beyond the Earth’s orbit will be daring, Interstellar communication is the collection and
dangerous and controversial. They may require output of signals between different planetary
extraordinary degrees of political leadership and systems and stars. The field of interstellar
unprecedented cooperation. The first human communication is constantly evolving and
steps to other planets within our solar system, or changing; As of 2020, the technology that has
even beyond our solar system will challenge been developed is functioning, making
much that we take for granted on Earth. communication easier than travel. Although with
these strides, there come downfalls. With the
With these problems in mind, crisis starts from time it takes to receive output data from other
the assumption of a mandate from the UN planetary systems, it could be anywhere from a
Security Council, in the form of resolution couple of years to a completely new generation
S/RES/2849 (2020), creating the Secretary- depending on where the signal was sent.
General’s Group of Experts (GoE) to help guide
these steps. No one can be certain how the GoE An important system for interstellar
will work. The resolution establishes the basic communication is the US Deep Space Network
framework for the GoE’s work, its mandate. (DSN). This system includes a series of antennas
This mandate is general. Its powers are no at three different locations around the world and
stronger than the Secretary-General it serves. forms the ground segments needed for said
But unanimous approval by all fifteen members communication. These antennas can be used in a
of the UN Security Council, including the five singular manner, collecting, transmitting, and
Permanent Members (P5), is exceptional, and exporting data that helps us understand the
creates a vital precedent in international law. universe and our place in it. The antennas can
Specifically: also be grouped together to receive more
specific data and travel further depending on the
● The Group of Experts makes it possible desired mission location. Other forms of
for UN Secretary-General António interstellar communication include radio
Guterres to plan to organize frequencies, laser communications,
multinational cooperation in space to a interplanetary optical communications, and deep
degree never possible before. Will the space optical communications. All these forms
GoE be able to agree on these of communication are currently functioning, but
challenges and make useful there is great need for growth within the field.
recommendations for UN Member Comparable systems exist in China, Europe, and
Russia.
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Projecting Humanity into
the Far Reaches of Outer Space
subject, essential to global security. At least 20
UN Member States have military satellites in
outer space, mostly these are reconnaissance
satellites. All five Permanent Member States of
the UN Security Council rely on reconnaissance
and navigation satellites, such as the American
GPS network, and its Chinese, European and
Russian equivalents. All five Permanent
Member States are experimenting, with not just
militarization of space (military use of space)
but space weaponization (stationing weapons in
space or firing weapons into space from the
A Deep Space Network [DSN] antenna in Goldstone, Earth). In 2007 China notoriously experimented
California with anti-satellite weapons (ASAT), a missile
that destroyed an old Chinese-owned satellite,
The Soviet Union and the United States have led creating a debris field that renders a large swath
research and practical experience studying of Low Earth Orbit unusable to this day.
interstellar travel, since the early 1970s. Much
has been learned, especially from the Soviet
Technological Advance
Space Station Mir in the 1980s and 90s, and the
Space and technology are intertwined. The first
International Space Station (ISS) which replaced
US designed rocket was able to reach the edge
it later in the 1990s and continues to orbit the
of space in 1946 on the WAC Corporal Mission.
Earth today. Some of the problems of long-
This was rapidly followed by similar
duration safe flight have been resolved,
accomplishments in the Soviet Union.
especially the effects of life in a gravity-free
environment for up to a year. But much remains
The key milestone for human space flight came
unknown.
on 12 April 1961, when the first manned flight,
Vostok 1, carrying astronaut Yuri Gagarin, was
Much also has been done on Earth, including
launched from the Soviet Union. Two years later
experiments to simulate long-duration space
in 1963, the Soviet Union sent another manned
missions, the medical problems, the
flight carrying the first woman into space,
psychological and social problems, and the
Valentina Tereshkova. The first piloted mission
dangers of space like surges in solar radiation.
to orbit the moon was in 1968 on the US Apollo
8 mission by NASA. Subsequently several
The Unavoidable Military countries have sent unmanned probes to the
Dimension Moon, Mars, Venus, and Asteroids.
American space probes have reached Saturn and
Among the field of interstellar communication other outer planets. Beginning with Viking 1 in
and travel, defense becomes a rising need. Space 1977, the United States also has sent probes into
has become an ever-growing and adaptive Deep Space.
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Projecting Humanity into
the Far Reaches of Outer Space
Jeff Bezos:
Now, in the year 2020, technological advances Bezos is a well-
have come to a stop. Inventors and scientists are known
entrepreneur,
constantly trying to create new technologies and
industrialist, and
ways of achieving greatness. Has technology creator. In 1964
truly reached maximum potential or will this Bezos was born
group coming together be able to overcome and in Albuquerque
make the next big breakthrough? to teenage
parents. After
How far to go? A nebula in the Milky Way years of fast-
food work he
Galaxy. A deep space photo from NASA’s
enrolled in a Student Science Training Program
Hubble Space Telescope at the University of Florida, where he told an
audience he would be the first to colonize space.
Participants He transferred to Princeton University to major
in engineering, where he graduated with a 4.2
Siva GPA and president of several organizations
Subrahmanyam revolving around space. In 1994, Bezos created
Banda: Born in Amazon. With annual revenue over USD 260
Andhra Pradesh, billion in 2019, it is the world’s largest private
India, Banda had a firm by revenue. Bezos is the world’s wealthiest
gift for science individual. In 2000, Bezos created Blue Origin,
from the start. a firm dedicated to lower the costs of space
After an average flight through re-usable launchers. In 2019
childhood, he Bezos unveiled plans for a moon lander known
enrolled in his as Blue Moon.
Regional
Engineering
College in Col. Chen Dong: Born
Warangal, India. in 1978 in Luoyang,
There he received a Bachelor of Science degree, Henan, Chen was raised
with a focus on electrical engineering. This was to have a drive for
followed by him getting his MA in aerospace higher education and
engineering from the Indian Institute of Science. greater work. He holds
In 1978 Banda came to the United States to a Master degree in
attend Wright State University, where he engineering from Xi’an
completed his PhD in aerospace engineering. Jiaotong University. A
After all of this education, Banda joined the US fighter pilot in the
Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory in 1981 People's Liberation Army Air Force, he was
as a civilian engineer. He started his budding selected to be a CNSA astronaut in 2010. In
career from his living room as an in-house 2016, Chen was sent off with other Chinese
researcher. Over the years, he earned a multitude astronauts on a mission lasting 33 days and
of awards for his work in engineering. landed back safely. This marked the longest
Chinese manned flight to date. For the Shenzhou
11 mission, Chen was awarded the Spaceflight
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Projecting Humanity into
the Far Reaches of Outer Space
Merit Medal (Third Class) along with the appointed to the four star (Full General) position
honorary title of ‘hero astronaut’ by China’s of Chief of Space Operations for the US Air
Central Military Commission Force.
Elon Musk: Born in Pretoria, Sergey Nikolayevich
South Africa, Musk has Ryazansky: From
always had a strong tie to Moscow, Ryazansky has
engineering and great science. always had a deep love
By age 10, his interest in for space, which he shared
computing grew massively with his grandfather. In
when he was given the newest 1996, Ryazansky
computer of that year. This graduated as a
activity gave him the title of biochemistry major. After
“nerd” leading to massive college, he worked as a
bullying throughout his childhood. Musk gained researcher at the Institute
a passion for greater, which contributed to him of Biomedical Problems. In 2003, his work
moving to Canada. After moving to the US he made him stand out and be selected as a research
attended the University of Pennsylvania, where cosmonaut. In 2005-06 Ryazansky participated
he studied economics and physics. He was in a 105-day space mission on the International
accepted for a PhD program at Stanford Space Station. He arrived in September on the
University but dropped out. Today he is most Soyuz TMA-10M spacecraft, accompanied by
famous as chief of Tesla car company, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, and American
SpaceX, the space launch firm he created in astronaut Michael Hopkins. He is retired as an
2001. astronaut, but highly active as a consultant on
manned and unmanned space exploration.
General John
William ‘Jay’ Camille Fournier
Raymond: Born in Saelovèze: Saleovèze was
1962, Raymond born in September of 1972
graduated from in Marseille, France. With
Clemson University a strong interest in stars
with a degree in from a young age, her
Administrative interstellar journey
Management. This followed in suit. In 1991,
led him to be commissioned an officer in the US she enrolled in the Institut
Air Force. In 1989 to 1993, Raymond had Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et de l’espace and
served as an operations center officer under the graduated with a Master in Aerospace
Strategic Aerospace Division at Vandenberg Air Mechanics and Avionics. After graduating, she
Force Base. From 2010 to 2012, Raymond began working for Icarus Interstellar, working
served as Vice Commander and Deputy on Project Icarus. Project Icarus is an
Commander at the Yokota Air Base in Japan. international project working towards the first
This gathered many international connections as humankind interstellar mission. She continues to
well as local, and led to promotion in 2009 to the work on this project to date and has emerged as
rank of Brigadier General. In 2019 he was
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Projecting Humanity into
the Far Reaches of Outer Space
one of Europe’s most prominent advocates of Galactic bulge. He then proceeded to give
manned space research. lectures and write books until 2001. In 2001 he
was appointed to the Presidential Commission
on the Future of the United States Aerospace
Chief Master Industry. Best known as a public intellectual and
Sergeant Roger commentator on astronomy and space
Towberman: exploration, he has received many major awards.
Towberman joined the
US Air Force in 1990.
Today he is the senior
enlisted, non- Major Lui Yang:
commissioned officer Lui was born in
(NCO) in the newly Zhengzhou,
created US Space Henan, in the
Force. Starting with countryside.
the Air Force, he Coming from a
showed great prowess. In 1992 he completed working family,
cryptologic language, leadership and intelligence Liu went on to
training at Goodfellow Air Force Base in Texas. People’s
In March 1997, he became a C2 Network Liberation Air
Analyst on Kelly Air Force Base. He continued Force (PLAAF)
this until 1999 when he served in a number of Aviation
assignments as Operations Superintendent in University. After
intelligence and operations units. In July of 2019 graduating with
he was appointed the Command Senior Enlisted qualifications as a pilot, she began service on
Leader of the US Space Force, where he serves active duty with the PLA Air Force in 1997,
now. rising to the rank of Major. She logged 1,680
hours of flying before being selected for
astronaut training. She was selected for the crew
of the mission Shenzhou 9. This was the first
Neil deGrasse manned mission to Chinese space station,
Tyson: A native Tiangong 1. Lui became the first Chinese
New Yorker, in woman to go into space. While in space, she
1972 Tyson started made breakthroughs in space medicine. She is
attending Bronx still an active astronaut, contributing as a pilot
High School of and space medic.
Science. Tyson
went to Harvard
where he majored
in physics. Even
though he showed
great brilliance, his
original work ethic was lacking. In 1991 he
completed his PhD in astrophysics at Columbia
University, with a dissertation on Abundance
distributions along the minor axis of the
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Projecting Humanity into
the Far Reaches of Outer Space
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