America at the Crossroads of Grand Strategy 9 Space tourism is a major industry available to a wide cross section of the public. Upper 2060 Bound The United States alone or with its allies holds the lead power posi- tion in aggregate across the civil, economic, and military realms. Space is protected as a free domain under a rules-based, interna- tional order with established norms of behavior that promote the philosophy of open trade and space as a commons for all of human- ity For this analysis we assumed that the states along each axis are independent of those along the other axes. These combinations of bounds produced eight future scenarios, shown graphically in Figure 1. Maximized values of the axis bounds are shown in dark gray symbols. Minimized values are shown in open symbols. Sce- nario titles are derived from the predominant characteristics of the scenario. Green icons are those generally favorable to the United States, while orange and red represent those generally unfavorable to the United States. These three scenarios assume a major increase in the importance of space globally, with the U.S. coalition retaining space leadership across the civil, commercial, and military realms. Further, they broadly share similar characteristics in these realms. Brief descriptions of these sce- narios, as well as key resulting characteristics, are provided below. Star Trek: Most optimistic and expansive The U.S. coalition retains leadership over the space domain and has introduced free-world laws and processes that have led to sig- nificant global civil, commercial, and military expansion in space and resulted in large revenue streams. Thousands of humans live or work in space at a variety of habitats across cislunar space, the Moon, and Mars. Garden Earth: Optimistic and expansive The U.S. coalition retains leadership over the space domain and has introduced free-world laws and processes that have led to significant global civil, commercial, and military expansion in space and resulted in large revenue streams. However, human presence is limited and most processes are controlled remotely or robotically.
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