International Trade in Arms Regulations (USA law) will probably scotch any cooperation agreement NASA would like to have with anybody outside the USA (except Canada). Space related technology is listed as 'arms'.
European satellite manufacturers are marketing "ITAR Free" products - meaning no USA technical input whatsoever.
This seems to me a matter of managing risk - for example:
Risk : The sea-level will rise 8 meters (~25ft) in the next 100 years.
Likeliehood : say 1% within 100 years;
Cost : Hundred's of low-lying cities flooded; huge tracts of arable land sterilised leading to inadequate food production; fresh water supplies contaminated for billions of people; Deaths of 1-5 billion people (another guess depending upon when).
If we assume the risk of occurrence over the next 100 years is only 1%, and that the consequences are so calamitous, then they cannot be ignored. The risk managers are our governments; without government action, our collective response to the identified risk is just "hope a lot" and I don't think that's good enough.
Slashdot Mirror
International Trade in Arms Regulations (USA law) will probably scotch any cooperation agreement NASA would like to have with anybody outside the USA (except Canada). Space related technology is listed as 'arms'.
European satellite manufacturers are marketing "ITAR Free" products - meaning no USA technical input whatsoever.
This seems to me a matter of managing risk - for example:
Risk : The sea-level will rise 8 meters (~25ft) in the next 100 years.
Likeliehood : say 1% within 100 years;
Cost : Hundred's of low-lying cities flooded; huge tracts of arable land sterilised leading to inadequate food production; fresh water supplies contaminated for billions of people; Deaths of 1-5 billion people (another guess depending upon when).
If we assume the risk of occurrence over the next 100 years is only 1%, and that the consequences are so calamitous, then they cannot be ignored. The risk managers are our governments; without government action, our collective response to the identified risk is just "hope a lot" and I don't think that's good enough.