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Professorship of European Government Systems in Comparison at Chemnitz University of Technology invites you to explore space in its economic dynamics and security policy dimensions in two lectures in the university library on January 18, 2024
Photo: NASA Image and Video Library
Space, as the fourth domain of human civilization – after land, water and air – is not only strategically important for every state, but also indispensable for our daily lives. Satellites enable communication and navigation; they provide images and precise time signals. Although hardly ever in the public consciousness, each of us comes into contact with space several times every day – as the DLR (German Aerospace Center) impressively shows in the video “A day without space travel” (https://www.dlr.de/next/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-6668/10935_read-24891/).
Against this background, the Professorship of European Government Systems in Comparison at Chemnitz University of Technology (TUC) invites you to a public lecture event on January 18, 2024, which will discuss both the increasing economic potential and the military importance of this strategic space above our heads with the opportunities and risks for Germany. Major General Michael Traut, Commander of the Bundeswehr Space Command, and Sabine von der Recke, Board Member of OHB System AG and member of the German Offshore Spaceport Alliance (GOSA), will give a lecture from 6:30 p.m. in the TUC University Library (“Ideenreich” room). , Street of Nations 33, in Chemnitz.
“Space – especially the near-Earth orbit – can no longer be characterized as an unlimited expanse, but is characterized by compression, internationalization, commercialization and securitization,” says PD Dr. Antje Nötzold, representative of the Professorship of European Government Systems in Comparison at the TUC, adds: “While the costs of access to space were prohibitively high for a long time, massively reduced launch costs have given rise to a rapidly expanding commercial space sector under the slogan ‘NewSpace’ in which private companies develop innovative products and services in, for or with space for primarily commercial customers. NewSpace already generated around $500 billion worldwide in 2020 and is continuing to expand rapidly with annual growth rates of nine percent.”
In terms of security policy, the issue is anything but distant, but rather explosive and highly topical. In the so-called “Second Space Race”, the USA and China are not only competing to put the next people on the moon and to build a permanent lunar station. The new system conflict and technology competition are also increasingly taking place in space. “The associated broad development of capabilities to deceive, impair or destroy objects in space has, due to the inherent dual-use nature of all space systems, triggered a debate about the security of the respective capabilities in space and already an arms spiral in these so-called ‘counterspace capabilities’. “In addition, the Ukraine war shows the new dimension of space in warfare, in particular the importance of the NewSpace industry in conflicts and warfare,” said Nötzold. The first German national security strategy also states: “The free and unhindered use of space is essential for our security. […] The Federal Government will therefore pay increased attention to space as a strategic dimension and expand its capabilities in this area.”
Further information granted by PD Dr. Antje Nötzold, representative of the Professorship of European Government Systems in Comparison, email [email protected]
Mario Steinebach
10.01.2024