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In my first ever blog as a McConnell Scholar, in the autumn of 2019, I discussed a fascinating theoretical technology proposal that I believed would be the next great leap for our species. It was called a space elevator, and as hard as it was going to be to build, I argued that we should do it anyways because of all the problems it might solve. It is safe to say—based on the bizarreness of the structure alone—that I was a disciple of all things space exploration then. In the autumn of the next year, I criticized our system of elections by praising a place I believed was doing it better. This autumn, it only seems appropriate that the thought I cannot seem to get out of my head is my critical opinion of the system being established to facilitate space exploration. Heads up, expect as many farfetched ideas and passionate calls to action as my previous autumnal exposés. Oh, and take it with a grain of salt.
At the time of this blog post, the world is dumping praise on rocket-development company SpaceX for their very first all-civilian flight to space: Inspiration4. All over social media, “inspiring” images of the rocket launch are coupled with messages about just how important the mission is for humanity. This blog is the antithesis to that praise.
There seems to be a unanimous consensus emerging on social media that shooting a missile with people on top into the abyss is the greatest act of scientific and social progress ever. Yet, the stated goals of SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic—the largest rocket companies founded by billionaires with big ambitions—are generally not space exploration in the interest of science or uniting humanity. Instead, these businessmen want to make money. Having conquered the markets of this world, they plan to conqueror those off it. After all, there are far fewer competitors in the vacuum of space. They market products like “space tourism,” and “asteroid mining,” and “colonizing other worlds,” seeking to create alleged new business models, not new discoveries.
When you remove the superfluous nouns, these businesses are not actually involved in anything revolutionary. In fact, tourism, mining, and colonization are businesses famously rooted in the past, and with bad connotations. They are industries linked to some of the greatest shortcomings of our species. Each one fostering exploitation, unsustainability, and inequity.
While lauded as pioneers in all areas of advancement, these companies are achieving one thing above all else; namely, making sure that when a group finally become confident enough in technology to venture off the Earth forever, the shackles of our exploitative elitist social structure remain tightly bound to their ankles. It’s the same system that leaves humanity with a long list of existential crises. The same crises that the billionaires controlling the system and these companies ignore to instead play astronaut.
Is a rocket more important than feeding a village? Is a rocket more important than educating a region? Is a rocket more important than giving water to a nation? Is a rocket more important than our atmosphere? My answer is NO! Yet every day this tradeoff occurs with more frequency than the day before.
I used to excuse these sacrifices for the sake of scientific innovations pioneered by government agencies like NASA or the ESA (without which we would not even be able to monitor the effects of climate change), but it becomes more and more clear with each launch that to these men do not pursue innovation for the benefit of humanity, but for the engorgement of their wallets.
They claim that if the world is falling apart, they are doing us a favor by finding us a second home, an escape route. They hold press conferences where they show renders of the cities they will build for us on Mars. The renders are just another calculated marketing decision to distract us from the truth of their intentions. The truth is, there is no adequate replacement for the Earth. On Mars, there is virtually no Atmosphere relative to Earth, and while it is unbelievably frigid, the surface is still constantly irradiated for lack of a magnetic field. On Venus, clouds of sulfuric acid and the hottest atmosphere in our solar system melt satellites sent there in less than two hours. That is not to say we will not inhabit these planets one day, on the contrary, I think we will certainly find a way. Yet, despite Antarctica’s comparatively pleasant conditions, scientists still cannot support more than a few dozen people there at a time. How then, are we expected to overcome those great challenges by the billions of people and do it hundreds of millions of miles away? It is a question that probably has an answer, but not in the next few decades. Moreover, I argue that if we spend a vast number of resources pondering the question the answer will become moot, as the more urgent threats to our planet will remain inadequately addressed, and may turn billions into millions, thousands, or worse.
It is said that history will judge the complicit. Increasingly, I wonder if these men plan to be the only ones left to write their own.
At the risk of sounding like I am planning for doomsday at any moment (which I am not), if you mentally play out the worst-case scenario for our planet in the next few decades, you will reveal the obvious fallacy in the assertions of the men leading these companies. Imagine whatever plausible disaster you prefer since there are several. For example, you may choose nuclear war, climate change, or a super-bug pandemic.
If or when these crises we face come to bear, the only plan B these people are planning is clearly limited in scope. In fact, based on the limitations I discussed before, there will probably only be room in any potential outer space haven for themselves.
Don’t you pity them though? In your selected scenario, when things do go south—and these men are afloat in their extraterrestrial safehouses—I wonder how long it will take them to realize their mistake?
I wonder when they will realize that in their inability to satiate their own greed, they have constructed themselves a cosmic prison instead of an intergalactic empire?
I wonder if they will regret having every opportunity to do something to save the Earth and ignoring each one?
I wonder what it will feel like when they realize they abandoned their only true home, and for what?
I used to think the world needed something to work towards together to be united and I still believe it does, but outer space is increasingly divided. Russia, China, India, Japan, Europe, and America look to it with different plans and directions. Even the private and the public sector bicker constantly over the future of outer space. Not to mention, when a group of these competing interests finally does come together, another group is scheming in the opposite direction. Clearly, the projects the world needs to work towards together do not need to be manufactured, because they already exist and pose an existential threat to everyone. Any of our theoretical threats from before hold the power to eat at the foundations of our society and grow that potential constantly.
Perhaps once these problems are addressed, the necessity to manufacture unity will return. Until that day, the duty of all people is plainly preserving our planet and species by putting our energy into resolving these crises. As our leaders and benefactors, that duty falls on the heads of these billionaires and CEOs with the greatest weight of all. Yet, the men and women leading these companies are imagining themselves LITERALLY on another world entirely and are celebrated for doing so.
One of our most dutiful founding fathers, John Adams, famously reflected on his responsibility as a leader while in France struggling to gain support for the American Revolution and seeing the grandeur of the French arts in juxtaposition with his rough-hewn colonial homeland. He wrote that he must study politics and war so that his sons could have the liberty to study mathematics, philosophy, navigation, and agriculture so that THEIR CHILDREN could have the right to study any art they choose.
I say that it is time we stop cheering for the unveiling of futuristic spacesuits, shiny new rockets, and dramatic and wasteful launches. Instead, like John Adams, in this era we must demand of ourselves and our leaders to study and address the problems of our age: stopping climate change, disease, and war, so our children have the liberty to address the problems of inequality and poverty, so that—at last—the children of OUR CHILDREN will have the right to explore the cosmos.
Should these men turn all their efforts towards resolving our crises and forge a stable and safe society for all, I would be the first to return to their discipleship. Alongside them, I would cast my eyes to the heavens from the firm foundation of my home world in anticipation of the discoveries of a limitless tomorrow. Until then, I will stay here on Earth, and they should too.
Tanner Morrow is a McConnell Scholar in the class of 2023. He is studying Asian studies, political science, Chinese, and Russian at the University of Louisville.