Chapter 2 provides an insightful outline of our Step-by-step strategy for human space exploration. This chapter addresses the supporting framework that is required to implement the strategy.

Our strategy is designed to realize our vision of how we believe we can get humans into space. We want to see human exploration in space as an everyday idea, as readily accepted as the Internet and cellular phones: concepts that only a few years ago were considered as novel and beyond state-of-the-art. Now we see children using these resources as though the world had never existed without them. Imagine a world where space is considered as our natural environment, a second home that is an extension of our first. We have faith that this new image of the world is not too far away.

New ideas in the areas of science and technology will be a natural outcome at every step of the strategy. Section 3.2 discusses the processes and challenges of technology development including technology transfer and the sharing of information. Because of the wide range of required space technologies, we address the importance of interfacing management and systems. We also examine how exposure to a new environment provides a novel perspective that can in turn lead to breakthroughs in science and technology.

What are the current legal and political issues that support, or that will hinder, the progress of our strategy? We need to find ways to work within the current framework of laws that are acceptable to governing bodies. Furthermore, we have a long-term vision that will bring us to a new era in which other worlds may evolve independently of Earth. How will these worlds be governed? Will new laws evolve from living on these worlds? These are some of the questions addressed in section 3.3. We can only go so far in our recommendations, as there is a point at which prediction is only as accurate as science fiction. But this is a chance for us to have a fresh start, a chance to envision a better world with new governing systems.

Who is going to pay for the implementation of our strategy? Who will make it happen? These are extremely important questions which are addressed in section 3.4. We examine current space coordination efforts that have been successful and we propose new organizational structures for our strategy. We have also analyzed the past methods of financing large space efforts. Since our strategy is a Step-by-step approach, we want a plan in place that will be flexible and reduce the risk of failure.

We are in an era in which most people are apathetic towards space. As a result, there is no sustained interest in human exploration into space. Why do we think of Earth and space as two separate entities that cannot coalesce? Even with examples such as environmental monitoring being a natural use of space technology, many people walk around wondering why we spend so much money on space instead of fixing problems on our own planet. Society believes that we spend several more times on space than we actually do. Why is there such is a lack of public awareness and interest in space? Suggesting means to change the attitude society has towards space exploration may be one of the most important contributions that our strategy has to offer. In order to increase the successful implementation of our strategy, we discuss ideas in section 3.5 about education and public awareness at the individual, national and international level.

Since space concerns all humankind, developing countries shall be stimulated to participate in our strategy. Therefore, we have included a sample case analysis of contributions and benefits to Asian countries. We chose to focus on Asia for two reasons. First, within this region there are many nations that have developed economically and technologically to the point where they can contribute and benefit from participation in the strategy. In addition, the 1999 ISU Summer Session was held in Thailand, which gave us a unique perspective on the potential of this region.

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