It has been a little more than a month since the 2013 Hawaii Aerospace Summit took place at the State Capitol. Since then, a special report has been in the works, outlining some exciting developments that have come out as a result of the October conference. That report is now done and our new Board Chair, Henk Rogers, has released this summary:
“Mankind is at a crossroads in space exploration. It is the end of an era where hugely expensive government sponsored manned expeditions to LEO (Low Earth Orbit) and unmanned expeditions beyond are the only way to space. The new competing paradigm is lean and mean space exploration sponsored by business, academia and small non-profit space enthusiast organizations. It is our goal to bring the coming multi-billion dollar business of this new kind of space exploration and settlement to Hawaii.
Hawaii will be #1 in space tourism. Hawaii is the only place where horizontal launch is both close to great tourist infrastructure and open ocean unpopulated area necessary for launch safety reasons. We have access to potential high net worth space tourists from both the mainland and from Asia.
Hawaii will be #1 in micro satellite manufacturing and launch. Hawaii’s location, thousands of miles from the nearest populated area in every direction, means that we can launch satellites into every orbit at the lowest cost. Moreover, the University of Hawaii is taking the lead in both building and launching micro satellites.
Hawaii will be #1 in off-planet settlement and its technologies. Hawaii’s volcanic mountain-top geology being the same basaltic composition as the Moon and Mars makes it the perfect place to practice building and living in extra-terrestrial settlements before we actually go. Since we are unique in this area, we should welcome every agency that has plans for such settlements to test their concepts in Hawaii.”