According to foreign media reports, some experts put forward a point of view: At present, human beings need a new ethics of space exploration, instead of treating Mars and the moon as places for conquest and settlement.
In the next few years, space agencies in the United States, China, Europe, and Russia are actively deploying lunar exploration programs. In addition, commercial space companies such as space startups “Lunar Express” and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin are also paying close attention. The moon, if the future lunar exploration plan is realized, astronauts and their robots will occupy the most valuable places and be able to mine water, ice and other resources on the surface of the moon. At that time, our moon may no longer be like before…
The moon is only a foothold, the first step towards the edge of the vast landscape of the universe. Mankind is on the edge of a new era of universe exploration. In this new era, short, intermittent, and tentative space travel may be competing with each other. Replaced by the cosmic activities carried out by the interest groups of the United States, in the next 20-30 years, manned missions may take an important step towards Mars-mapping the topographic structure of Mars, and even establishing human colonies. The distance between Mars and the earth is 500 times the distance between the moon and the earth. Once humans conquer the moon and Mars, they will extend their exploration goals to asteroids and other more distant celestial bodies. With the advent of this new space age, we face a collective responsibility. We need to face up to the current moral and ethical challenges. , To avoid serious mistakes that appeared before.
What is worrying is that people’s attitudes towards space exploration so far seem to be similar to those of European and American colonial powers . The billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX company has begun to use a large number of Starlink satellites to change the night sky landscape, and military space companies are still committed to it. Research and development of space weapons such as anti-satellite missiles. These missile tests have produced more and more debris, which has blocked low-Earth orbit. At the same time, if some companies change the terrain on the moon’s surface at will, this change will be irreversible for human capabilities. Currently, human space agencies lack an overall and long-term future development plan. If there is no clear guideline, the universe will no longer be an area of cooperative exploration and shared interests, but a place of conflict and arbitrary exploitation of resources and pollution.
If not changed, commercial and military interests will affect or even replace collective interests. The pursuit of resources such as water, minerals, and precious orbital space will cause space destruction and night sky pollution, and investment in space exploration will become a powerful force that escapes the earth’s society. A way of fairness and justice responsibility.
In recent years, more and more voices in the astronomy community have advocated a choice-a peaceful, sustainable and equal space vision, and paid close attention to injustices and inequalities on the ground. Is the larger philosophical question provided for human use by other planets? Or do they have independent civilizations? The European colonists’ view has always been that everything exists for their use. It seems that after hundreds of years have passed, we will still repeat the mistakes of the European colonists…
Volkovic has been involved in political activities for a long time, including opposing the Iraq War and supporting the rights protection activities of “Black people’s fate”. Recently, he and his colleagues established the “JustSpace Alliance”. More moral responsibility, and build a fairer and more just world based on the beautiful vision of future mankind. Other advocates and non-profit organizations have the same mission, including: MIT Media Lab Space Enabled, which advocates the sustainable development of space society and the environment, and uses space technology to promote fairness and justice on the earth; British Columbia, Canada The Institute of Outer Space Research, led by university researchers, focuses on the peace and sustainable development of space above the atmosphere; in addition, there is the Safe World Foundation, a think tank in Broomfield, Colorado, USA. In reducing space conflicts and promoting the development of space diplomacy.
Due to overlapping goals, these advocates and institutions hope to trigger a cultural shift that will reshape the priorities of human space agencies and curb the rapid development of the space industry. Can they succeed?
The universe is no longer mysterious now. Space agencies and commercial space companies in many countries have planned exploration plans for stars outside the Earth’s atmosphere. Within a few decades, humans may live on the moon for a long time, engage in scientific research, and establish Outposts or colonies, mining resources, people can land on the moon as space tourists. Soon Mars will become the next exploration target. In addition, we can also look forward to many asteroid missions, especially some asteroids have been confirmed to contain rare and precious metal elements. It is expected that by the end of this century, humans will surpass the asteroid belt and may even send missions. Human expeditions go to the moons of Jupiter and Saturn to explore the marine worlds of Europa, Enceladus and Titan.
But who decides where we are going next? Who are “we”? Some experts believe that allowing countries and companies to claim space property, territory or resources is an imperialist mentality . If we are unscrupulous in space exploration, some people will say that we have the technology, money and power, and we can use space. Resources, until we are satisfied, we will not care about other countries and future generations.
The driving force of mankind to exploit resources will gradually endanger the extraterrestrial space, including the moon and the night sky we see. In the future, the colonization of the use of resources by mankind in extraterrestrial space will be consistent with the wanton plundering of human society and natural ecology by colonial powers centuries ago. The process of the system is not much different. From space business giant Elon Musk to the U.S. senator who is vigorously promoting the commercialization of space, their proposition is-we can mine the moon! This reminds people of resource exploitation in the historical colonial era, just like an ancient forest that can never be restored. Atmospheric and space resources may be exhausted quickly, and even a lifeless planet may be irreversibly changed due to environmental degradation. .
No one hopes that human space activities will cause abandoned dwellings and ice mines on the surface of Mars
Thousands of active satellites orbit the earth, but low-Earth orbit is full of thousands of abandoned spacecraft and debris. This space junk zone also includes debris from anti-satellite weapon tests. In the ocean, people can at least drive ships. Sailing around the Pacific Garbage Strip, but in extraterrestrial space is not that simple. Even if a floating bolt in space collides with the spacecraft, it will cause the spacecraft to malfunction. However, so far there is no treaty norm that all countries in the world follow to ensure that people will not create new space junk and clear space. Garbage technology is also in its infancy.
Another problem is that long space missions usually need to find more resources on the way. Every 1 liter of water and every piece of equipment launched from the earth will occupy the valuable space of the rocket and require additional fuel to get rid of the gravity of the earth. Remote space exploration may include extracting water from the cold lunar surface, using 3D printing equipment to make rocket components, or using other lunar materials to build infrastructure, or screening minerals on asteroids. Nonetheless, no one hopes that the next few decades of space activities will leave traces of pits and pits on the moon, or scattered abandoned dwellings and ice mines on Mars. In addition, ice and other space materials are essentially non-renewable resources. , They will not be supplemented.
In addition to space pollution or space loss, the “super constellations” formed after many artificial satellites are abandoned will also bring special risks. SpaceX’s Starlink project will eventually create tens of thousands of miniature spacecraft, which is a space visible to the naked eye.器网络。 The network. Although SpaceX tried to develop a “DarkSat” coating to minimize spacecraft reflectance, astronomers discovered that the special coating of dark satellites is only slightly darker than current artificial satellites. If everything has not changed, without these latest spacecraft plans, people will see the same night sky in the future. For thousands of years, people have seen the night sky almost the same, but the night sky that future generations of humans will observe will be the same. Changes.
Human ancestors believed that the ocean was a vast and attractive area. The Central and Southern Islands in the Pacific Ocean and other ancient civilizations used ships to explore the ocean. However, with the continuous progress and development of human civilization, accompanied by ocean exploration, it is human military, cargo and navy. With the emergence of troops, countries such as Britain, Spain, and Portugal deployed fleets to control territories and trade routes. Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galiano wrote in the book “The Veins of Latin America” published in 1971: From the discovery of Latin America to the present, everything has become the capital of Europe or the United States, and in the distant The center of power accumulates. Everything here includes: soil, fruits, rich mineral deposits, residents and their work and consumption capacity, natural resources and human resources.
Will space be different in the 21st century? To answer this question, we need to study the logic and motivations of organizing space missions. The first deep-space travelers needed water to survive, they needed to build shelters from space radiation, and they needed fuel to return to the earth. But when the first European colonists sailed overseas or entered the territories of indigenous peoples, they were only looking for survival resources, or advancing their common interests with the local people. Later, these colonists brought plunder and destruction. Now scientists Space exploration has put forward many utopian ideas, but if they are implemented in practice, they may be completely different.
Space contractors and military contractors “usually are the same thing”!
The terms used to describe space exploration deserve more attention. Although NASA and other organizations have used terms such as “manned”, “crew” or “human” to perform space missions, we still often use other “problematic” Terms such as “immigrant”, “colony” and “frontier field”, these words all have a colonial color. For new space travel, we do not yet have a “space language” to accurately describe future human life in space.
Recently, space commercial companies and research institutions are preparing manned spacecraft to land on the surface of the moon, restarting a new era of human landing on the moon again, but in the future, human astronauts may follow the same behavior pattern as colonies hundreds of years ago: first extract and obtain raw materials as quickly as possible. If we do not suspend or break the development trend of colonization in the future, it is expected that in the future space field, especially the emergence of large international companies such as Amazon.com, they will also adopt the same strategy to cause damage and threat to space.
Military power has always played an important role in space. The technology required to manufacture space rockets is similar to military missiles that deploy warheads. The same is true for space telescopes and reconnaissance satellites. Space commercial contractors and military contractors are the same thing. They are engaged in space research. Scientists in the laboratory have close ties with military companies such as Northrop Grumman. Northrop Grumman plays a leading role in the technological development of the James Webb Space Telescope. Launched in September, the US Space Forces offered extensive political support for the telescope, and the US government often regards space as a new field of operations.
In 2015, the “Space Act” signed by the then President Obama stated that the United States would not claim any space territory, but the Act also established the principle that space companies can own, use, and sell any space resources they obtain. Many lawyers disputed the bill, questioning whether the bill violated the spirit of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. In 1979, representatives of a few countries negotiated a more restrictive Moon Agreement. It is stipulated that natural resources in space are the “common heritage of mankind,” but the United States and the former Soviet Union and other space technology powers are not signatories of the treaty. Therefore, the treaty has little international weight and cannot restrict the space behavior of some countries. More than 50 years ago, conflicting views about space exploration have gradually emerged, such as: whether to give priority to space scientific research, to realize the sharing of space interests among multiple countries, and how to achieve commercial and military goals in space.
As humans begin to explore the space beyond the atmosphere, there are two obvious differences between the behaviors of other powerful empires in human history-“indigenous inhabitants” have not been found in extraterrestrial space, so there is no similar to America hundreds of years ago. No one was allowed to annex territory from the exploitation and exploitation of colonists. But if we plan to achieve long-range space exploration, it will definitely involve how astronauts find a limited amount of water and fuel supplies in space, which means we need to reach a consensus on who has access to outer space and which space activities are allowed.
In the middle of the space race in the 1960s, two years before humanity’s historic landing on the moon—in 1967, the representatives of the United States, the former Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom signed the Outer Space Treaty. For more than half a century, the treaty It has always been the basic framework and norms of international space law. The “Outer Space Treaty” represents the signing of the agreement to protect the space environment of all mankind and to ensure that there will be no development of militarization in space. At the same time, the treaty clearly stipulates that the exploration and use of outer space is “made for the benefit of all countries, regardless of their economic or scientific development.” The treaty also prohibits weapons of mass destruction, military bases, and space military exercises.
The earth does have a precedent for how to manage these conflicting interests: Antarctica, the remote Antarctic continent has a rugged and extremely cold surface, and was previously uninhabited. Here, humans have struggled with commercial interests such as whaling and mining, and are passionate about it. World powers expanding their territories have also tried to keep their competitors out. In 1959, despite the tense global political situation, 12 countries, including the United States and the former Soviet Union, signed the Antarctic Treaty, which prioritized scientific exploration and environmental protection over commercial and military activities.
Man’s management of Antarctica is not perfect. Certain countries have led the debate about which activities can be allowed or prohibited. The Antarctic Treaty is relatively non-binding in terms of implementing rules. Antarctica is now contaminated by plastics and chemicals. Private yachts Without the approval of international organizations, you can also enter this world of ice and snow. Nevertheless, this 60-year-old treaty is still valid. The negotiators use the spirit of international collaboration, and maintaining this spirit requires constant cooperation, but it is better than acquiescing in unrestricted commercial development or territorial claims and then trying to repair and reverse the damage. many. Although Antarctica has been damaged by the climate crisis, Antarctica has basically maintained what it has been like for many years: a spectacular and savage landscape with mountains, volcanoes, ice shelves, icebergs and glaciers, but without any vegetation. Antarctica has a small number of science stations and land-based telescopes, but no oil rigs, military bases and whaling facilities.
If the experts who put forward these views are correct, their work will open up a new perspective on space exploration and the connection between space exploration and human beings on earth. For the sustainable development and sharing of space, the “Outer Space Treaty” needs to be formulated. Other rules, such as: which orbits in the atmosphere can be used, what types of satellites and spacecraft can be launched, and what happens after they fail? In addition, the “attribute meaning” of the space and the applicable target need to be defined.
Although companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin like to conduct space exploration as independent agencies and have their own grand space travel and colonial expansion plans, in fact they mainly rely on NASA’s infrastructure, and most of them The funding comes from cooperation with NASA and other space agencies. Therefore, if relevant laws impose strict restrictions on space missions of space agencies, extraterrestrial planets may not be damaged by human actions, and the future lunar polar ice resources will not be caused by humans. Activities and disappear completely, the cliffs and mountains on the moon will not be leveled, the aerospace industry’s survey and exploration of extraterrestrial planets will embark on a formal model.
But to achieve these goals, decisions on related space policies must be more inclusive. It is not only the responsibility of a few political and corporate leaders, but also astronomers, social scientists, space lawyers, space environmentalists, indigenous peoples, and others who have personal experience. Victims of colonial plunder.
Even from the perspective of space exploration in the past few decades, indigenous peoples have reason to doubt whether their views have been taken seriously. Objective evidence shows that the choice of land-based telescopes and rocket launch bases usually rarely considers indigenous peoples or indigenous peoples. An obvious example is the 30-meter-diameter land-based telescope currently being built on the island of Hawaii. Once completed, the telescope will become one of the largest in the world. Insight into the early universe. Researchers are currently proposing to build the telescope on Mauna Kea, which is the second largest island peak on earth and a holy land for the indigenous people of Hawaii. The local indigenous people opposed and protested fiercely. The value of building a land-based telescope on Hawaii Island is to find a planet where humans can settle in the future, and to try to discover alien life forms, but this is at the expense of the indigenous peoples of the earth and Mauna Kea. Holy land as the price.
SpaceX’s latest launch site selection also sparked fierce controversy. The company built a launch facility in the Boca Chica area of Texas, but did not seek the consent of local residents. Many of the local residents are people of color. In the future, they will have to endure the expected prospect of noise pollution from space launches, rocket fragments scattered during launch, and wetlands filled with launch garbage. In addition, the expansion of the Elcantara launch center in northern Brazil may cause thousands of people to leave their homes.
Sustainable and equal space activities will focus on social equity
50 years after mankind’s first moon landing, these space missions will bring obvious benefits to mankind: it is conducive to climate science and space monitoring, predicts the trajectory of near-Earth asteroids in time, and avoids collisions between asteroids and the earth.
The new system for preserving the beauty of space for everyone needs to give priority to scientific research and public benefit. International treaties can delineate a limited space area for specific types of commercial activities. Sustainable and equal space activities will focus on social equity and the environment. Protection, workers’ rights and balanced economic interests. More people will benefit from the development of the space environment, instead of relying on the charity of several billionaires. The future space decision will also be democratic consultation. Those countries that despise ethics, deploy military forces in the atmosphere, pollute the night sky, or damage the lunar environment And commercial companies will not be allowed to enter the extraterrestrial space.
Although mankind is facing various crises today, mankind will reshape our planet while exploring new worlds. Egalitarianism, sustainability and justice in space are achievable, but the premise is that we have a correct attitude of cooperation. Work for a common goal on earth.
Perhaps space will continue to maintain a state of tension. On the one hand, it is a collective, progressive, and international enterprise. On the other hand, it is activities that pay attention to national reputation and commercial competition. Although the moon and Mars have not yet been damaged by human activities, But our space exploration strategy has changed, or at least we have the ability to change other planets.
For more such interesting article like this, app/softwares, games, Gadget Reviews, comparisons, troubleshooting guides, listicles, and tips & tricks related to Windows, Android, iOS, and macOS, follow us on Google News, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest.