We must not let tech bros and tyrants hijack the race to the stars

Allowing space travel to become the domain of the sci-fi-obsessed private industry will pave the way for the exact dystopias that science fiction has taught us to avoid, writes Borzou Daragahi

There is no requirement to militarise space exploration (Nasa/Getty)

If you hate movies and books about spaceships and aliens and can’t tell Star Wars from Star Trek, much less hyperspace from warp speed, you are exactly the kind of person who should watch The Expanse, now streaming on Amazon.

The sci-fi series is set a few hundred years in the future, at a civilizational moment when humans have colonised the inner solar system. But all is not well. A war is brewing between the superpowers of Earth and Mars. The long-exploited underclass of the asteroid belt is gathering steam for a violent rebellion against both. An oligarch weaponises a dangerous new scientific discovery for power and profit, imperilling all life in the solar system. Armed forces, rebel groups, and powerful corporations regularly commit mass murder against civilians and fleeing refugees.

It all sounds depressingly familiar – a projection of our present-day crises and conflicts into the solar system. The series, based on the award-winning book series beginning with Leviathan Wakes, should be read as a cautionary tale – especially for those turned off by the militaristic themes that dominate a lot of space discourse.

If space is humanity’s future, it is crucial to take an early stand against its exploration becoming almost entirely the domain of billionaires, bullies and military brass. But while actors and screenwriters stage a massive strike over the abuses of AI, very few prominent voices challenge the encroaching global dominance of space exploration by militaries, autocratic governments and corporations.

“We should be including a diverse range of perspectives in the conversation about space,” says Sabine Winters, a Dutch scholar specialising in space research. “I am concerned about the overpowering influence of sci-fi narratives, potentially leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy. However, our goal should be to reclaim and redefine the narrative.”

As has been widely reported, an unprecedented global space race is taking place. The Cold War space race was a straightforward contest between two competitors. It began with the launch of the world’s first satellite, Sputnik, by the Soviet Union in 1957, continued through the United States’ moon missions, and ended with the fading camaraderie and cooperation of the immediate post-Soviet era.

Today’s competition for space includes a broader assortment of men, including plutocrats and would-be autocrats, seeking to bolster nationalistic bragging rights and rally the backing of the masses.

It comes amid NASA’s pursuit of the Artemis programme, aimed at getting astronauts back to the moon by 2025 and establishing one or more lunar bases in the near future. NASA’s work is aided by private sector firms such as SpaceX, founded by controversial billionaire Elon Musk. The eccentric oligarch’s space company, recently valued at $150bn, is also aggressively pursuing a quest to perfect the reusable rockets needed to launch a mission to Mars and back as early as 2029, part of a vision to eventually colonise the red planet.

America’s premier geostrategic rival, China, has surpassed Russia as the number two space power; it aims to place its astronauts on the moon by 2030 and to expand the Tiangong (Sky Palace) space station it launched into orbit around Earth in 2021.

Russia remains a formidable but fading space power, operating the soon-to-be scrapped International Space Station and shopping for other partners, including Egypt and Algeria, to sell its satellite launch services after its isolation following the Ukraine war.

On Friday, Indians cheered “Victory to Mother India!” as they watched the launch of the country’s third lunar mission, which intended to land a rover on the moon in order to explore the moon’s south pole. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said of the launch, “This remarkable mission will carry the aspirations and dreams of our nation.”

In the Middle East, among the region’s autocratic regimes and troubled administrations, a sort of regional space has emerged.  The successful launch of the United Arab Emirates 2021 Mars spacecraft will be followed by a lunar rover landing the following year and an exploration of the asteroid belt in 2028. Israel, Saudi Arabia and Iran are bolstering their space programmes with the assistance of private-sector initiatives such as SpaceX and partnerships with superpowers such as Russia and China. Even Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pledged to launch his nation’s first astronaut into space by the end of 2023.

Helping drive nations’ space ambitions is the dual-use nature of much of the technology. The same know-how used to launch satellites into orbit can easily be repurposed to strike an enemy in war. North Korea and South Korea have likely reenergized their ambitious space programmes in order to refine ballistic missile technologies and eavesdrop on each other.

A number of countries are toying with the idea of emulating the US by adding a space force as a branch of their uniformed military, effectively kicking off the process of placing a noble scientific endeavour preferably overseen by astrophysicists under the thumb of generals. Scientists and policymakers have already begun to sound the alarm over the possibility that tensions between the United States and China along the Strait of Taiwan could one day spill over into, say, the Sea of Tranquillity on the moon, as superpowers and allied corporations race to claim rights to extract rare minerals from beneath the lunar surface.

One way to prevent that scenario is for engaged citizens to urge governments to move beyond militaristic and nationalistic themes in space plans and discourse. Space objectives rooted in the unadulterated pursuit of science or even calculated and conscientious profit-seeking are valuable but insufficient. Winters says that she has been interviewing thinkers from the global South, feminists, and LGBT+ communities to gather alternative perspectives on space and space travel.

A few publications, such as the unconventional Topia Magazine, have attempted to inject alternative ideas into space discourse. “Space is a black canvas for imaginary projects, but it has been confined to visions guided by military and commercial interests, an imperialist approach aimed at the economic dominance of superpowers,” wrote journalist Virginia Vigliar. Last year, the Copenhagen Planetarium hosted a lecture and exhibition on “imagining a future for space that is queer, trans, decolonized, beyond binary thinking, and beyond themes of purity.”

But in a sector dominated by tech bros, tyrants, and troops, it is an uphill battle. Diverse perspectives are typically relegated to the academic margins.

“There are a lot of alternative views on space,” says Winters. “But there is a lack of education on these views.”

Still, it’s encouraging that the European Space Agency’s Advanced Concepts Team brought her on as a resident philosopher to explore topics on imagination, science and AI. ESA’a $17bn budget is comparable to NASA’s $32bn budget and surpasses the China and Russia programmes.

The space field requires more philosophers, artists and people from marginalised communities to weigh in, envision alternative visions for cosmic exploration, and offer more thoughtful paths forward than models of conquest and colonisation that have already defaced our planet.

Travelling beyond the Earth’s atmosphere is a highly technical and perilous endeavour performed by engineers, scientists and pilots with extensive training. Astronauts must maintain composure in high-stress situations and could benefit from military, emergency medical, or rescue-and-relief training. In case of a crisis, a chain of command is a requirement of all transport projects. However, there is no requirement to militarise space exploration.

It would be a grave failure of imagination if humanity sleepwalked unwittingly into the very dystopias we have repeatedly warned ourselves to avoid and wound up exporting our most destructive traits beyond the earth.