Meanwhile, the United States, Canada, China, Japan and India are constructing and operating the largest telescope ever - the Thirty Meter Telescope in Hawaii. Private sector space travel continues to advance. Though there have been challenges this year with the explosion of Antares and Virgin Galactic flights, long term trends point to huge growth in the industry. Mars One, the ambitious Mars colonization plan, is well underway, and the selection procedure is being finalized. Tesla's plans are also progressing. And in one distant frontier, all seems to be well operationally - in the International Space Station jointly manned by Russian, American and European astronauts without the dark shadows of their regional geo-politics, proving that space is truly beyond petty human interests.

China and the U.S. are far ahead in this race to colonize Mars, even though India managed to gatecrash the big boys' party. Outside of these three countries, only a few have the necessary knowhow, including Russia and the European Union. Exploring Mars as a successful and viable mining area or colony is a priority of these two giants, though there have been arguments against the waste of resources in a bourgeoning space race.

Such arguments cannot be more ludicrous. From a simple economic perspective, the world is slowly reaching a tipping point. The world used to balance itself with outbreaks of disease or wars, but now standards of living are better on the planet and there are fewer deaths, especially now that nuclear weapons have apparently made great power wars obsolete. Naturally, the world population has exploded in the past fifty years, and unfortunately, the resources we have on this planet are finite. Since there is no process to reverse these long-term demographic trends without the mass extinction of half the world's population, there are only two ways to deal with it. The first is to increase the productivity of agriculture, a problem which can be solved by mass production of genetically modified crops, which is in turn a highly contentious problem that is opposed by groups like Greenpeace. The other solution is to disperse ourselves into new territories and find new resources.

As for the competition among India, China, the U.S., Russia and the ESA when it comes to space, one must remember that space is no one's personal or national property, and a little scientific competition and curiosity is needed to benefit all of humanity. Without the Cold War space race, we wouldn't be where we are today; everything from GPS to LED bulbs, to canned food, to plastic chairs, to satellites predicting hurricanes and tsunamis that save millions of lives are byproducts of space research. We should also invest in future technologies with applications we might not yet fully understand, as global crises prompted by disaster or other causes can occur with hardly a moment's notice.

We should welcome and embrace this second global Space Race along with the New Year. As long as mankind can look up to the sky with dreams of conquering, perhaps there is hope for humanity after all.

Sumantra Maitra is a foreign affairs journalist and research scholar on Foreign Policy and Neo-Realism based in New Zealand. He tweets @MrMaitra.

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