Not out of the world

By Yao Afra YAO

Chapter 1: Easing you in

Prologue: You can’t afford to be late

In this incredibly fast-paced, highly-mutable world of ours, a nation is only as good as how well they keep pace with the rest of the world—particularly the top players of the world. It is as simple as that.

I have said it before and perhaps it bears repeating: Africa’s lateness to this world of enormous speed—this world of speedy advancements—was, for the very first few decades after our respective independences, completely understandable.

Because, after all, hadn’t we, prior to our independence, spent almost five centuries of our lives as a continent, forcefully doing the bidding of others—the West, particularly? So indeed, it was through no fault of ours that the First and Second Waves of the world’s Industrial Revolutions totally passed us by.

And this forceful lateness to the global plane of advancements, I must say, it has placed on this continent and country of ours, an enormous duty—a duty to move with the speed of wind, with twice the wisdom of Solomon, thrice the ingenuity of Anansi, and quadruple the foresight of, well, Biblical Daniel.

We find that this truth was never lost on countries like China, India, Singapore, etc. Having been faced with their own versions of involuntary delays in their national journeys, these countries were to regroup as quickly as humanly possible, and set plans and course of actions for themselves—plans and actions which have led and continue to lead to the total transformations of their national destinies.

An illustration: India

We will delve deeper into this matter in later publications, but perhaps a quick crash course is in order. When India attained independence from Britain in 1947, the computer revolution was still comparatively at its early years.

But it didn’t take long for this newly liberated country to see the enormous opportunity existing in this then-young market, and put in place national policies that would make the country uniquely poised to compete in this quickly emerging new world. Forward-thinking strategising it was for the country of India!

By the early 1990s, the country had, through national initiatives like the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), positioned itself as the world’s “back office” of a sort, offering IT support for corporations and organisations all across the globe. And it did not stop there—‘back office’ was just not enough to satisfy the Indian aspiration.

Through the exercise of this same foresight, the Indian government was to lay in place even more favourable market conditions—market conditions that would see to the creation of local IT companies capable of effectively competing with the rest of the world, particularly the developed world. And from these favourable market conditions emerged global giants such as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, etc.

At the turn of the year 1999 and leading up to the new millennium, 2000, the infamous Y2K Scare caused countries across the globe to frantically forage for solutions; and like a good neighbour, India was there, ready with timely and innovative tech solutions. Because India had done the groundwork, you see. Hence, this South Asian country, it was ready to take the fullest advantage of this opportunity. And so very quickly, the name India became synonymous, worldwide, with high-level, world-class technological service and expertise.

Fast-forward to this era of the 2020s, and what do we see…? Makafui Aikins covered this in the article ‘The Matter of the Spectacular Spectators’—give it a read, if you can. But yes, fast-forward to this era of the 2020s, and what do we find? Among others, the narrative of India as the country of ‘global CEOs’ is deeply taking roots. Indeed, “the narrative of the Indian global leader and CEO has become almost too loud a fact to ignore. Everywhere you turn, you see the Indian, there, at the helm of global affairs—powerful men and women commanding businesses and organisations at the world’s centre stage, the developed world.”

Admittedly, the country of India still has a long way to go. But this heroic tale of grass to grace, it really is not stopping now. China is yet another profound story of exponential rise from poverty to prosperity. And we will cover the Chinese story in subsequent articles. To keep this article as brief as possible, let us hop right into the matter at hand.

The general consensus

I think it is safe to say that we all are in agreement on this fact: in order for nations that find themselves in delayed national journeys in this incredibly fast-paced world to effectively participate and take a respectable seat at the global table, such nations must move with the speed of wind.

These nations must have incredible foresight. They must be able to detect opportunities (both latent and obvious, both emerging and present) and must act quickly and efficiently on these opportunities through the exercise of the power of foresight—just like countries like China and India have done (and continue to do) throughout the years.

We are in total agreement on this fact, aren’t we? Good!

So, I am going to go ahead and boldly introduce today’s topic and the guest to you… Please promise me you won’t shout upon hearing what the topic is.

You promise? Good!

My brothers and sisters, the subject of today’s article is… SPACE

The matter at hand

Oh yes, you heard me right. You see why I had to ease you in with a long intro?

Fellow Ghanaians (and Africans, in fact), as you and I sit here in this country and continent still debating over mundane issues such as whether or not the Ghanaian/African has the capacity to effectively spearhead their nations’ construction, mining, oil and gas sectors, etc., there is a whole new revolution underway—one which the Ghanaian and African seems largely oblivious of. While we sit in this country of ours, still not having mastered this mundane national imperative of having our own citizenry serve as principal owners in sectors such as construction, mining, energy, telecommunications, etc., nationals of other countries have already mastered and dominated these fields, and have raised the bar even higher—so high that they have reached space. Indeed, this revolution, it’s unlike others ever witnessed. This revolution, it is out of this world—quite literally.

Having brought this matter up, if you laugh at me and my guest today, it won’t hurt us. Because we would be finding ourselves in good company, if you do. For wasn’t it around the year 1932 that this article by the Czech jurist, Vladimir Mandl, titled ‘Space law: The Problem of Space Travel’ received ridicule all across Europe? Why? Well, because this gentleman had dared to exercise the power of foresight and predicted that there would come a time when humankind would venture into space. Yet, very astonishingly, it took only 25 years for Mandl’s otherworldly foresight to take shape, with Russia in the year 1957—the year of Ghana’s independence actually—launching the world’s artificial satellite into space.

Space exploration was no joke after all!

Chapter 2: the matter at hand

An introduction: Livingston Karikari (PhD(c))

Before we proceed, an introduction is in order. Livingston Karikari (PhDc) is a Ghanaian space law specialist—one of the few of his kind in a field dominated by much of the developed world. Currently pursuing a PhD in Space Law from the Beijing institute of Technology, Dr. Karikari has written extensively on the topic of space exploration and space law, and has participated and contributed enormously on many international platforms (such as in the USA, India, China, etc)  on space-related topics—topics such as the ‘Prevention of Space War’, ‘The Applicability of the Law in Neutrality in Outer Space’, etc.

It is always a pleasure to find a fellow Ghanaian making enormous strides in sectors and fields where we tend to find ourselves largely, and painfully, absent. Everything discussed in this chapter is as a result of a conversation had with this brilliant mind.

‘Gold’ in space

This is the 1950s we are talking about here. It had only been a few years since the West had dragged the world into its second global war—WWII. The USA and Russia had gone into the war as allies and had exited as sworn enemies. “Enemies not engaged in physical warfare but an ideological one”. Dr. Karikari notes. And this rivalry between these two superpowers, it was to cause its fair share of destructive global tensions, but one cannot overlook the few positives it spawned—fuelling the hunger for space exploration, for one. By 1957, Russia had beaten the US and the rest of the world into space; and the USA had  avowed to do the world one better. So, 12 years after Sputnik—in the year 1969—the USA was to launch Apollo 11 onto the moon, with its astronaut, Neil Armstrong becoming the first human being to set foot onto the moon.

The space race was in full throttle!

Law must come to this space

But this is human affairs we are talking about here. In the absence of law, there is always tyranny. And in outer space, humankind’s penchant for tyranny was beginning to rear its ugly head. This Cold War rivalry between Russia and the USA was manifesting in such problematic, unnecessarily competitive ways—even in space. No sooner had Russia and USA arrived in space than glaring concerns arose over the potential weaponisation and militarisation of space. Worse, there were fears of space becoming a platform for the deployment of nuclear weapons by nations.

And indeed, the USA—till date the only country to have deployed nuclear weapons on Earth; twice during WWII—had in the year 1962, at the height of its nuclear arms race with Russia, deployed a hydrogen bomb, Starfish Prime, into space, a nuke which had 500 times the power of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This was to leave remnants of high-levels of radiation, forming a man-made radiation belt around the Earth that lingered for some time.

The fear of the weaponisation of space was not hypothetical after all.

Hence, in the year 1967, after periods of deliberations, the Outer Space Treaty was enacted and executed into international law. And its very first signatories were the “Russian Federation, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and United States of America.” The Treaty’s preamble reads. Vladimir Mandl had been proven right—indeed humankind would venture into space; and humankind would need laws to regulate their activities in space. And thus, his afore-ridiculed 1932 article was to form a highly influential basis for the Outer Space Treaty and all such space-related treaties we have today governing international space explorations and relations.

Free for all

“Outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, shall be free for exploration and use by all States without discrimination of any kind, on a basis of equality and in accordance with international law, and there shall be free access to all areas of celestial bodies,” reads Article I of the Outer Space Treaty, giving much-needed legal backing to the ‘non-appropriation’ and ‘freedom of exploration’ principles of space exploration.

Indeed, space is a ‘global commons’; it is not the preserve of any nation—no matter how powerful these countries are. All of us nations interspersed across the world, we each have the freedom and power to boldly venture into space. Article II of the Treaty makes that perfectly clear.

I, for one, find this principle and provision quite comedic. There is some dry wit to it. It is like the open to treat invitation coming in the form of ‘for sale’ signage that I see attached to this five-bedroom, immaculately white mansion at Airport Residential Area. Technically, this beautiful house, situated at a prime location in the nation’s capital, is open to us all to purchase. There is no discrimination here.

You and I can get that house today if we want to. Think of the benefits that come with living in our own home, in such a prime location… The roads are good through and through; this vantage location means ease of access to all other locations—to and from work, for example. And with this first-rate location may come potential networking opportunities with fellow neighbours—prominent individuals who are well-established in society. The list of benefits is long. So then, brothers and sisters, what at all stands in our way of getting this pristine building?!

The means—money.

Oh yes, space is expensive.

But one cannot help but find this ‘money’ argument problematic, when whipped out by nations such as ours, Ghana, when such issues like the one at hand—space exploration—is raised. This is because you have nations like Singapore being:

• Later in their national journey than we are (for the country attained independence in 1965 from British colonial rule, 8 years after our own country, Ghana, famously liberated itself from these same Brits);
• Poorer in natural and human resource capital than many other nations of the world (for this minuscule country with a landmass of a mere 735.7 square kilometres as opposed to Ghana’s 238,533 square kilometres, is neither blessed in minerals nor oil, nor even fertile land for agriculture—unlike our country Ghana which is immensely blessed with minerals, oil, and arable lands)…

Yet, you have such a nation like Singapore—one of the world’s most resource-poor countries—historical and presently taking active steps towards playing a respectable role in global space exploration.

The country presently has about 70 space-tech companies—companies like Addvalue Technologies which specialises in the building of high-tech components and satellites, and offering its services to space entities worldwide.

Add value Technologies has recently developed technology that will form part of the world’s very first commercially manned space station set to orbit Earth by August of this year (2025).

So indeed, it is very problematic that you and I, the rich kids, having inherited enormous generational wealth, and continuing to literally sit on abundant wealth, cannot afford this mansion we’re speaking of—even though you and I may want it badly.

To watch a poor kid, emanating from the depths of poverty, inheriting nothing and sitting on no such wealth but sheer dust, transform their nothing into enormous wealth, while we, the rich, privileged kids, disintegrate into mediocrity and sometimes, utmost poverty… To watch on as countries like Singapore, coming from absolutely nothing, transform their barest minimums into enormous national wealth, so much so that they are able to partake in this wondrous, highly-propitious global phenomenon called spaced exploration, while we, the immensely resource-rich nation, sit as bewildered spectators… We really ought to feel nothing but shame, don’t we? We ought to feel that kind of shame that does not destroy but inspires immediate action.

Space exploration is not a mere excursion.

Mind you, space exploration is not just a mere excursion. Even if it was, it would still be worth our buck. But luckily, it really isn’t just that. Space exploration and the technologies devised for and birthed out of it have had spillover effects on all other aspects of our human lives—from communications to engineering, medicine, agriculture, environmental monitoring, etc. It has positively impacted the computer revolution, the material sciences, national security and defence systems of participating nations, etc.

I, for one, wouldn’t know my left from my right when driving if not for GPS technologies like Google Maps. And for that, I owe a debt of gratitude to space exploration. Our modern GPS technologies and satellite communications systems find their origins in space exploration activities by the USA, alongside countries like Russia and China.

“The US owns about two-thirds of the world’s satellites, giving them a big advantage,” Dr. Karikari states categorically. Indeed, the USA has remained a leader in satellite communications. American companies dominate global satellite services for television, the internet, and data transmission. And the US commercial satellite industry, it rakes in billions of dollars to the US economy each year—US$285 billion in 2023, according to the US Satellite Industry Association (SIA). That is almost four times the entire GDP of our country, Ghana!

The space industry has contributed immensely to the creation of high-quality jobs and the economic expansion of these participating countries. While Ghanaians are still recycling the limited career pool of yesteryear, the American, Chinese, Russian, Indian, Singaporean child, just to name a few, grows up having as real and attainable prospects, careers in the space industry, along its entire, very diverse value chain—with a country like the USA leading the way, having a public leviathan like NASA, and private entities like SpaceX, Blue Origin, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, etc., playing major roles in satellite technology, space exploration, and spacecraft development.  It is estimated that SpaceX generated a revenue of almost US$13.1 billion in 2024—with Starlink being its topmost generator, raking in almost two-thirds of this figure. (More on Starlink in a jiffy).

Imagine being a country and having companies such as these, forming part of your taxable entities! Who needs Covid levy in 2025 when you’ve got companies like SpaceX to tax? For comparison’s sake, let me quickly remind you that our incessantly touted gold sector as a whole contributes about US$580 million to Ghana’s GDP.

This means that the entire revenue of our nation’s much-acclaimed gold sector pales greatly in comparison with that of this singular American company, SpaceX. Indeed, these nations are really playing chess, while we are playing checkers, aren’t we?

One cannot mention these private space companies without mentioning this fast-emerging phenomenon called space tourism. A company like Virgin Galactic is selling tickets for future space flights for about US$450,000 per seat. Experts are projecting that SpaceX’s trips could cost somewhere between US$50 million to US$100 million per passenger. Indeed, even if space exploration was nothing but mere excursion, it would still be worth our buck.

And that is not all. There is also the matter of space mining. This is yet another quick emerging phenomenon in space exploration. In January of this year, BBC published an article titled, ‘Asteroid Contains Building Blocks of Life’

This sample of space rock “scooped up by a Nasa spacecraft and brought to Earth, contains a rich array of minerals and thousands of organic compounds,” they wrote. This was very much in line with the insights garnered by scientists over the course of humankind’s exploration into space.

For instance, in his co-authored paper titled ‘Examining the Benefits and the Legal Challenges of Asteroid Mining in Outer Space’, Dr. Karikari highlighted, “It has been suggested that asteroid mining may be used to supplement Earth-based rare metal supplies and provide resources, such as water, to space. But as awareness of Earth’s finite natural resources has grown, so has the emphasis on finding other celestial bodies that may be mined for additional purposes.”

Top players like the USA, Russia, and China are very actively exploring this potential of space mining, particularly asteroid mining, as these asteroids have been found to be rich in valuable resources such as platinum, water, and rare metals.

At this rate, not only are countries such as ours going to play second fiddle in the Earth’s mining industry, but if the necessary steps are not taken, we are going to play the same role outside of Earth’s atmosphere. And that would be incredibly tragic!

We cannot close this piece without bringing this matter up… Do you remember how incessantly Trump hammered on this point when he and his Vice, Vance, cornered Zelenskyy for a scolding session during the latter’s visit to the White House to discuss, among others, a ceasefire agreement between his country and Russia?

“Your men are brave, but if you didn’t have our military equipment, this war would have been over in 2 weeks!” Trump wasn’t bluffing when he said this. For indeed, among others, US space technology, particularly its satellite technology like its surveillance, navigation, and communication systems—largely provided by private space entities like Starlink—have played a vital role in supporting Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia. “Space has indeed become a way of revolutionising warfare.” Dr. Karikari quips.

Ardent readers of this column, ‘Attempted Prophecies’, know that we covered the revolution of warfare and the resultant civilian technologies spawned, in the series ‘For One Man, Down Millions.’ Indeed, we see in space exploration, yet another means for countries—the developed world to boot—to launch robust military, national security, and defence systems. Systems and mechanisms which have further served to strengthen their positions as global giants.

With space, the developed world has metamorphosed further into unshakable global leaders—leaders in science, technology, geopolitics and international diplomacy, while we in the developing world shrink further and further into obscurity and unimportance. I don’t know about you, but this leaves such a heavy feeling in my chest.

Conclusion

Enough has been said, I am going to keep my conclusion brief. I have said this before, but perhaps it bears correction: a nation is only as good as how well they perform on the international plane—true. But in this new world of ours, one cannot escape the fact that nations are also only as good as how well they perform in outer space.

>>>It is true that this writer writes, but one cannot deny that the writer is also presently engaged in a game of peek-a-boo with readers. Yaoafrayao1@gmail.com https://muckrack.com/yao-afra-yao; LinkedIn: Yao Afra Yao 

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