Tournament: Berkeley | Round: 2 | Opponent: Harker MK | Judge: Davidson, Ari
1AC – Debris
Asteroid mining spikes the risk of satellite-dust collisions
Scoles 15 (Sarah Scoles, freelance science writer, contributor at Wired and Popular Science, author of the books Making Contact and They Are Already Here) “Dust from asteroid mining spells danger for satellites,” New Scientist, May 27, 2015, https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22630235-100-dust-from-asteroid-mining-spells-danger-for-satellites/ TDI
Study this is citing – Javier Roa, Space Dynamic Group, Applied Physics Department
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30 per cent (arxiv.org/abs/1505.03800).
Space dust wrecks satellites and debris exponentially spirals
Intagliata 17 (Christopher Intagliata, MA Journalism from NYU, Editor for NPRs All Things Considered, Reporter/Host for Scientific American’s 60 Second Science) “The Sneaky Danger of Space Dust,” Scientific American, May 11, 2017, https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/the-sneaky-danger-of-space-dust/ TDI
When tiny particles of space debris slam into satellites, the collision could cause the
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Collisions with nuclear powered spacecraft radiate the globe.
Yuri Zaitsev, academic adviser with the Russian Academy of Engineering Sciences, ‘9, “Russia to develop nuclear-powered spacecraft for Mars mission” http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20091111/156797969.html
Soviet and U.S. nuclear spacecraft programs were marred by a number of
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enter the atmosphere, spewing radiation above the Earth and on its surface.
That causes extinction.
Karl Grossman, professor of journalism at the State University of New York/College
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may be as high as 30 to 40 million people. (7)
Space debris causes china war
Micah Zenko, Whitehead Senior Fellow on the US and Americas Programme at Chatham House, 4-16-2014, "Dangerous Space Incidents," Council on Foreign Relations, https://www.cfr.org/report/dangerous-space-incidents?sp_mid=45655631andsp_rid=emFjay5iZWF1Y2hhbXBAZ21haWwuY29tS0
A January 2007 direct ascent ASAT test carried out by China against its defunct Fengyun
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S. authorities and the PLA agency that oversees Chinese military space launches.
China miscalc goes nuclear
Kulacki 16 — Gregory Kulacki, China Project Manager in the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, former Associate Professor of Government at Green Mountain College, former Director of External Studies at Pitzer College, former Director of Academic Programs in China for the Council on International Educational Exchange, holds a Ph.D. in Political Theory from the University of Maryland-College Park, holds graduate certificates in Chinese Economic History and International Politics at Fudan University (Shanghai), 2016 (“The Risk of Nuclear War with China: A Troubling Lack of Urgency,” Union of Concerned Scientists, May, Available Online at http://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/attach/2016/05/Nuclear-War-with-China.pdf, Accessed 06-28-2016)
No Technical Exit
As long as both sides remain committed to pursuing technical solutions to their unique strategic
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the diplomacy of reducing those risks as they now spend preparing for war.
1AC – War
Private space mining is ramping up and causes global war -
1 Asset protection – companies want security for investments
Funnell 18 Antony Funnell Antony Funnell is a Walkley Award-winning journalist and broadcaster. He is the presenter of the Future Tense series on ABC Radio National and is a former host of The Media Report, 8-1-2018, " War in space 'inevitable' because there's so much money to be made, expert warns," ABC Radio National, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-24/conflict-in-space-is-inevitable-expert-warns/10146314 ash
A leading Australian space law expert has warned conflict over space assets is "inevitable
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going to protect our investment in this business?" Professor de Zwart said.
2 Land grabs – armed satellites will compete over asteroids
Skibba 18 Ramin Skibba Current Assistant Project Scientist at UCSD studying the evolution of galaxy clustering. Ph.D. in Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pittsburgh, 5-2-2018, " Mining in Space Could Lead to Conflicts on Earth," Nautilus, https://nautil.us/blog/-mining-in-space-could-lead-to-conflicts-on-earth ash
Space mining is no longer science fiction. By the 2020s, Planetary Resources and
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activity in space being ceded, with NASA’s help, to private industry.
3 Conflicting legal interpretations spark international war
Thompson 16 Clive Thompson Clive Thompson (@pomeranian99) is a WIRED contributing editor and author of Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World, 01.14.2016, "The Minerals Found in Asteroids and Faraway Planets Could Be Worth Trillions. Who Gets to Mine Them?," Wired, https://www.wired.com/2016/01/clive-thompson-11/ ash
SPACE IS LOUSY with profits. Consider the asteroid Ryugu: It’s made of so
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distant space could easily cause seething international strife here on our home planet.
Nuke war causes extinction – it won’t stay limited
Edwards 17 (Paul N. Edwards, CISAC’s William J. Perry Fellow in International Security at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. Being interviewed by EarthSky/card is only parts of the interview directly from Paul Edwards.) “How nuclear war would affect Earth’s climate,” EarthSky, September 8, 2017, earthsky.org/human-world/how-nuclear-war-would-affect-earths-climate TDI
We are not talking enough about the climatic effects of nuclear war. The “
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two nuclear powers would stay limited to these smaller, less destructive bombs.
AC – Plan
Plan – states ought to ban the appropriation of outer space for mining activities by private entities.
Normal means is ratification of the Moon Treaty
Mallick and Rajagopalan 19 (Senjuti Mallick, graduated from ILS Law College, Pune, in 2016. She was a Law Researcher at the High Court of Delhi from 2016 to 2018 and is currently pursuing LL.M in International Law at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, USA. She has been doing research on Outer Space Law since she was a student at ILS. Presently, she is working on different aspects of Space Law, in particular, Space debris mitigation and removal, and the law of the commons. She has published articles on Space Law in the All India Reporter Law Journal and The Hindu.)( Dr Rajeswari (Raji) Pillai Rajagopalan is the Director of the Centre for Security, Strategy and Technology (CSST) at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi. Dr Rajagopalan was the Technical Advisor to the United Nations Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on Prevention of Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS) (July 2018-July 2019). She was also a Non-Resident Indo-Pacific Fellow at the Perth USAsia Centre from April-December 2020. As a senior Asia defence writer for The Diplomat, she writes a weekly column on Asian strategic issues.) “If space is ‘the province of mankind’, who owns its resources?” Occasional Papers, January 24, 2019, https://www.orfonline.org/research/if-space-is-the-province-of-mankind-who-owns-its-resources-47561/ TDI
A third possible option is to get a larger global endorsement of the Moon Treaty
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and new geopolitical dynamics, and potentially find compromises where there are disagreements.