On the tenth anniversary of the Evolvable Lunar Architecture (ELA) study, its historical significance has come into sharp focus as a visionary roadmap that helped reframe U.S. Lunar ambitions around sustainability, affordability, and commercial partnership.
In December 2010, the Asahi Shimbun published a remarkable roadmap laying out the future trajectory of Chinese maritime expansion. In its analysis, the Shimbun outlined a geographically contingent thesis of Chinese geopolitical strategy—one on which the scholar Tetsuo Kotani elaborated further in a 2019 academic paper. Both publications argue that Chinese maritime access to the Pacific and Indian Oceans is effectively constrained through a series of islands and straits in the First Island Chain. These potential chokepoints constitute the “Nine Gates” through which Chinese maritime commerce and sea power must flow.
In December of 2024, the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Damascus fell unexpectedly to opposition Islamist forces spearheaded by the rebel group Hayaat Tahrir al-Sham.
This paper recommends that Congress encourage and support a commercial demonstration of asteroid capture and resource harvesting as a critical element of U.S. national security and economic development strategy.
U.S. Space Force strategy must extend beyond “right of bang” and focus on shaping the operational environment through posture, partnerships, and technology before conflict arises.