We are an international movement, focused on developing a responsible and prosperous future for all mankind, by becoming better stewards of Terra, while simultaneously reaching towards the stars, exploring and settling new worlds, to ensure the highest possible standard of living for all human beings, both living and unborn, into the indefinite future.
1 We use the following definition of diplomacy: 1. The art and practice of conducting international relations by negotiating alliances, treaties, agreements etc., bilaterally or multilaterally, between states and sometimes international organizations, or even between polities with varying status, such as those of monarchs and their princely vassals. 2. Tact and subtle skill in dealing with people so as to avoid or settle hostility.
2 We use the following definition of transstellar: 1. Existing or occurring over distances slightly less than typical interstellar distances (< 1 light year, approximately 0.3 parsecs). 2. Spanning or crossing between stars.
3 We use the following definition of respect: 1. An attitude of consideration or high regard (regard, definition: the worth or estimation in which something or someone is held). 2. Good opinion, honour, or admiration.
To begin with, with an extensive presence in space, we can monitor Earth more extensively, and make that information readily available to whatever labs or individuals need it. For example, we (humanity) currently argue a lot over Earth's carrying capacity, whereas if we were monitoring Earth extensively from space, the exact amount of arable land, land suitable for grazing, fertile ocean regions, could be determined, it would also be easier to determine the actual population of the planet with much greater accuracy.
Similarly, with an extensive space presence, we can also establish even more widespread, reliable, and increasingly inexpensive communication and data transfer, permitting the free flow of ideas and information, with a net benefit to humanity.
There are a multitude of new kinds of manufacturing, biotech, etc., that can only be performed in a microgravity environment, there are new compounds and alloys that could be produced in microgravity. And while we will before too long have the ability to create microgravity on Earth, for a while yet it will be easier to achieve in space. Furthermore, we can move most manufacturing off-planet to Earth orbit and Luna.
Luna may prove more suitable for many kinds of manufacturing, due to the presence of a gravitational field, solid ground, and nearby resources for construction and manufacturing. Asteroid mining, as well as Lunar mining, could easily supply all of the raw materials required for human civilisation for centuries, even millennia, to come, especially if we are efficient and thoughtful with our material use. For example, mining of water in-space will greatly reduce the cost of moving satellites and general space transportation cost. This will reduce the expense of space-based telecommunications, and permit the construction of large solar arrays in space. These satellites have the advantage of requiring no fuel, nor requiring large areas of valuable ground to be taken up by large facilities, nor the drilling of deep shafts, such as with geothermal energy. This will eventually permit the near-total elimination of the pollution and environmental destruction caused by our energy production infrastructure, which is one of the largest, if not the absolute largest, sources of pollution and environmental damage. This alone should present sufficient reason to develop large-scale space infrastructure.
While automation will be invaluable in space and on other worlds, and will minimise the number of people that must be exposed to very hazardous conditions, relying exclusively or almost exclusively on automated machinery and robotic systems for monitoring and coordination risks endangering human beings or even threatening humanity's continued existence if malfunctions or software glitches arise, or due to unpredictable changes in our still primitive artificial intelligences. Undoubtedly we will eventually solve these problems and the risk of automated and self-aware systems malfunctioning, glitching, or revolting will be eliminated. But we cannot wait until that time to begin using automated systems, therefore human oversight is necessary and will be for some time, mandating a human presence in outer space.
Looking at historical examples, individuals have had a more progressive and optimistic attitude about the future in those times when new frontiers were being opened up, and consequently the overall cultural attitude was, for the time period, more progressive.
Space represents the final and ultimate frontier, we should explore and expand into it for the sake of giving individual human beings, and humanity as a whole, a progressive and optimistic future, even a progressive and ever-changing society that strives to be stimulating eventually becomes boring and then self-destructive without any major change or growth in some form, empires collapse when they cease expanding, companies fold when they fail to continue growing their market share, and individuals become indifferent and callous when their environment becomes stale and unstimulating.
Space exploration and settlement will provide an infinitely stimulating, that is, interesting, engaging, thought-provoking, and valueful environment for humanity to explore and research.
Lastly, all stars have a finite lifetime, unpredictable and/or unstoppable events and phenomena could render Earth, perhaps even all worlds of the Solar system, uninhabitable. As we are creating a better society here on Earth, a true civilisation, then by the same logic and reasoning that drives us to do so, we should simultaneously be expanding that civilisation-in-the-making to uninhabited worlds foreign to Earth, and eventually, to foreign star systems as well.
This way we can ensure that humanity will continue to exist and prosper, and continue towards whatever destiny awaits us, even long into the future.
In pursuit of these aims, these objectives, we founded AsteronX in 2014, short for Asteron Explorations—‘asteron’ is derived from the Greek word for ‘star’. We wanted to create something akin to Starfleet from Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek, though we were uncertain at the time as to how we would go about achieving this. To start with, in February 2017 we started the AsteronX YouTube channel, and began publishing videos about interstellar travel, beginning with the ‘warp drive’, which was at the time considered to be nothing more than fiction by most folks, this very first video would go on to become the most watched video on the Alcubierre Warp Drive, and as of August 2022 had over 2 million views.
In early 2020 we took another step towards our objective and began the Eos Project, a project to establish humanity amongst the stars, it was then that we first thought of an international interstellar-advocacy organisation, calling it the International Research Institute for Space, with the memorable abbreviation of IRIS.
In June of 2021, we began the process of creating IRIS as a non-profit organisation, which the intention that—among other things—it will manage an interstellar fund, grown steadily through various fundraisers, donations, and membership fees. The ‘International Research Institute for Space’ is now the official name of our organisation, though ‘AsteronX’ and ‘IRIS’ are also used as secondary names, hence ‘IRIS-AsteronX’. Our YouTube channel now has over fifty-five thousand subscribers, and more than two million total views.
We are just barely taking the first steps of the beginning, the utmost beginning of the beginning. The project, the Eos Project, is gaining momentum at an exponential rate.
In modern times, that is, the last few decades, there has not been an organisation dedicated to establishing a settlement on an exoplanet by a fixed deadline. SpaceX is dedicated to establishing a self-sufficient civilisation on Mars. But where is the SpaceX for the Oort cloud and its innumerable Earth mass planets? Or exoplanets in Alpha Centauri, Barnard's Star, Epsilon Eridani, or Tau Ceti?
There's a saying, ‘build it and they will come’, it refers to how often, when something is done, others find a way to make it work. Build a railroad across a continent? Folks sooner or later made it work. Commercialise space travel? Many companies and individuals are currently working hard on that.
The same must be done for interstellar space and transstellar settlement. An entire Universe—or more—is waiting out there for us, full of mystery, discoveries, adventure, and who knows what else, we need only to take the bold first step.