Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Universal Robotic Battle Cosmic Platform (URBOCOP).
Credit: Igor Ashurbeyli

A new proposal is on the table: Build an armed space station capable of tackling both natural and human-made threats to Earth.

Nations should cooperate in building the orbiting complex. Its duties would be to deal with space-derived threats to humanity, be they from incoming asteroids to violent solar storms – as well as threats arising on Earth from human activity including war and global warming.

Cosmic platform

Igor Ashurbeyli, chairman of the Moscow-based International Expert Society on Space Threat Defense unveiled his concept in a keynote address at the 4th Manfred Lachs International Conference on Conflicts in Space and the Rule of Law in Montreal, Canada.

The Conference was organized by McGill University’s Institute of Air and Space Law.

Ashurbeyli dubbed his defense idea “URBOCOP” – a Universal Robotic Battle Cosmic Platform.

URBOCOP would be an armed, unpiloted space station capable of monitoring Earth and space. It would have on-board weapons capable of destroying both natural and human-made objects threatening Earth – including ballistic missiles launched by one national against another.

Credit: Igor Ashurbeyli

Free from human bias

The control system for URBOCOP would be entirely automatic and free from human bias, allowing it to make decisions about striking dangerous military launches, regardless of their country of origin.

To be acceptable to governments around the globe, Ashurbeyli said it must be an international platform with completely transparent intellectual property rights and open architecture. Funding and the right to use it must belong to all peoples – encompassing advanced nations and developing countries alike, with no restrictions or boundaries, he suggested.

Space threats

In terms of space threats, Ashurbeyli cites these worrisome factors:

1. Sun storms and sun flares, known as coronal mass ejections.
2. Changes in the Earth’s magnetosphere which results in the destruction of the protective shield that could deflect coronal mass ejections.
3. Potentially dangerous asteroids and comets, which could impact Earth and lead to mass destruction of humanity.
4. Human-made space debris.
5. Climate change resulting from the effects of human technology, industrialization and solar radiation on Earth’s atmosphere.
6. Cosmic radiation – Earth is constantly affected not only by solar radiation but also by cosmic rays from novas, supernovas and pulsars. This also needs to be taken into consideration.
7. Earth being infected by biological threats from inside meteors and other small bodies that reach the planet’s surface.
   

   Igor Ashurbeyli, chairman of the Moscow-based International Expert Society on Space Threat Defense.
   Credit: Room – The Space Journal

Vulnerable planet

“The new, 21st century is not only the century of humanity’s greatest progress, but also of the realization that our planet is vulnerable…both in the face of man’s technological and military actions, and in the face of natural dangers originating in aerospace,” Ashurbeyli added.

Ashurbeyli is also founder and editor-in-chief of ROOM: The Space Journal that can be found here with additional information on the URBOCOP concept.

Go to: https://room.eu.com/community/Igor-Ashurbeyli-press-release

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