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Space, the chess match
March 31st, 2009 | National Space Symposium | Posted by Ben Iannotta
Futurist Alvin Toffler shares his outlook.
Some panelists here are taking the symposium’s theme, “The next space age,” to heart by offering views on what the new age will look like–others are artfully dodging the question.
Military leaders are being cautious, just as one would expect, and are using words like uncertainty a lot when discussing the future.
Gen. C. Robert Kehler, commander of Air Force Space Command, joked that his staff “left our crystal back at the office—it’s never your fault when you’re a four star.”
Keith Hall, a Booz Allen Hamilton partner and a former director of the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office spy satellite agency, renewed his call for establishment of an overarching space strategy. He seemed worried that the U.S. might be about to give up its space leadership by staying quiet. “I think we’re at the question of whether or not the United States will remain the world leader in…national security space,” he said.
Futurist Alvin Toffler, who was on the panel with Hall, said it was all but inevitable that the U.S. one day would become one of many countries leading in matters of space.
“That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s a different thing,” he said.
Speaking on another panel, Lt. Gen. John “Tom” Sheridan, sounded like he wasn’t ready to give up the lead.
He predicted space would become “a three dimensional chess match of enormous size and proportion.” Cyberspace will have to be considered together with physical space: “That is what the future holds for us,” he said.
He said U.S. national security space leaders must learn to operate in a “contested environment” much as air and land commanders learned.