This week, as the USA notes the 48th anniversary of Apollo 17 and prepares to return to the Moon with NASA’s Artemis Program, the new Institute of Space Commerce is being launched with the organization’s aim to change the equation for the human race with a goal of bringing one million new minds to the space economy.
Humanity is facing an uncertain future of vlimate vhange, conflict, pandemics, resource depletion, over population, and growing totalitarianism… yet, it doesn’t have to be this way.
As Institute Patron, Larry Niven, said, “The dinosaurs became extinct because they didn’t have a space program.”
We have a space program and, more, we have a space industry that is growing. In fact, the space industry is growing globally and in the USA at a rate not seen since Apollo in the 1960s. The space industry is also positively impacting every other aspect of human endeavor. However, more can be done. Knowledge is power and it is the goal of the Institute of Space Commerce to bring a million new minds to the space economy at this crucial time in human history.
Access to space changes the Malthusian equation for the human race: it improves all our lives and gives us a lifeline to a positive future.
Driven by the thinking of its patrons Larry Niven and the late Dr. Jerry Pournelle, the Institute believes that access to space provides a foundation for that positive future by giving us access to new energy source, new resources, new markets, and new economic opportunities with the potential to lift all out of poverty on Earth while providing the chance to heal Earth’s environment.
As the Institute’s Patron Emeritus Dr. Jerry Pournelle famously said in 1979’s seminal piece on the economics of space, ‘A Step Father Out,’ the objective for the human race is “Not just survival, but survival in style.”
Chris Stott, Co-Founder of the Institute of Space Commerce, and Co-Founder of the International Institute of Space Commerce, said, “Surely we can learn from the dinosaurs and change this extinction equation? Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle represent two of the finest thinkers on the myriad social, political, and economic possibilities facing the human race when space and technology is embraced as a solution to changing the equation with the goal of improving the lives of all on Earth. The solution is not just rocket science, it’s also economics and entrepreneurialism. Or as we say at the Institute, ‘free markets, free minds, free space.’ ”
“When we combine all the usual business complexity of finance, operations, human relations, and marketing with the unforgiving environment of space and the shallow well of experience with which the still young space age provides us, space commerce is not a field for the faint of hear,” said Dr. Michael Simpson, ISC’s newly appointed Director. “I cannot envision a day when space commerce will be easy, but we are already at work to make the business and physical environment it confronts more manageable for youth.”
The new Institute of Space commerce in the United States is affiliated with the International Space University’s International Institute of Space Commerce on the Isle of Man in the British Isles.
“We are keen to have the opportunity to launch the Institute of Space Commerce in North America following the success of the International Institute of Space Commerce in the Isle of Man. Our mission is to bring the talent and power of young minds into the global discussion and impact of humanity’s movement into space,” said Dr. Michael Potter, also ISC’s Co-Founder.
The Institute of Space Commerce is a US 501c(3) incorporated in Texas focused on uniquely contributing to the long-term discussion, debate and acceleration of humanity as commercially sustainable multi-planetary species. There can be a better future for us all. We just have to make it happen. Access to space fundamentally changes the equation for the human race. It grants us access to new sources of energy, new resources, and is already improving the lives of every man, woman, and child in the world. We just need to do more. Want to help us change the equation? Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to maximize humanity’s ability to explore, expand, and to be free. Free markets, free minds, free space.
The International Space University (ISU) is the space industry’s leading not for profit educational foundation dedicated to developing the future leaders of the world space community by providing interdisciplinary educational programs to students and space professionals in an international, intercultural environment. ISU also serves as a neutral international forum for the exchange of knowledge and ideas on challenging issues related to space and space applications. The University is both a US 501c(3) and a French Association Sans Brute Lucrative.