2020-05-25 - re: Space Travel (a response)
------------------------------------------
tfurrows wonders aloud over at the zaibatsu[1]
> The phrase "privatization of space travel" caught my attention. I
> guess i never really thought of space travel as a uniquely public
> thing. It makes me wonder, are there people who would limit
> humanity's access to space?
I posted already on this, using Gill Scott-Heron's incredible
"Whitey on the Moon" to establish my feelings. Scott-Heron was
writing from the perspective of the poor and downtrodden, at a time
when the United States spent 5% of GDP putting white men on the
moon, even as poverty and the collapse of social protections
accelerated in the country as a whole. When looking at the present
situation regarding space exploration, we need to understand the
concerns raised in the poem, and update them to our present
existence.
There can be no question but that the world we live in today is
different to the world of the early 1970s. Yes, the average person
lives a better life now than then, but the level of the improvement
in existence is wildly skewed and unequal. Even in the United
States, just six people own 50% of *all* wealth. Equality of
opportunity in our present world has vanished. We are, more so than
any other "developed" society since the mid-1500s, a society of
rigid caste structures, where birth is the primary determinant of
wealth.
What challenges, beyond inequality, do we face today? Aside from
the current deadly virus, the challenge is clear: Climate. It is
the one challenge which all of humanity faces - the deliberate and
determined destruction of the tenuous ribbon of life on this rocky
planet. Who benefits from this destruction? The same people who
populate the rich lists. Who pays for this destruction? The people
who don't profit.
What then are the sole people with the ability and the means to
face the incredible and urgent challenge to do? Are they to assist
in the development of new ways of living? Are they to (simply) just
pay their fair share of the costs of remaking society to a more
fair and just system?
No. They're making rocket ships.
What are they making rocket ships for?
To develop a bolt-hole in the sky, and to destroy one of the
collective resources of mankind - the heavens.
Whether that bolt hole is on Mars, on the Moon or just in orbit,
the titans of Kleptocracy intend to own that escape valve, and to
keep it for themselves. Elon Musk, the risible scion of an
Apartheid-Era potentate, said the quiet part loud one day in one of
his interminable twitter rants.
When asked how much a trip to mars would cost, Musk opined[2]:
"Needs to be such that anyone can go if they want, with loans
available for those who don’t have money" and when asked how
these loans could be repaid:
"Yes. There will be a lot of jobs on Mars!"
The same kleptocrat and future suzerain of Hellas Planitia is
currently involved in destroying the night sky. His "Starlink"
constellation has set back ground-based telescopy by decades,
long-term exposures of the most distant objects have been ruined by
his swarms of highly reflective bots. Musk is but the first
potential sky-wrecker, given that his fellow billionaire Bezos will
be launching his own constellation in coming months.
There is no value for the great mass of humanity in these projects,
no science for the masses, no improvement of the human condition.
This is all about the über-wealthy and their own private profit,
their own private future. Each rocket which leaves the earth causes
unknown damage to the stratosphere, an area of the tenuous
atmosphere of our planet we know almost nothing about.
To circle back to Gill Scott-Heron, it is beyond any comprehension
that the privatization of space is taking place in the midst of the
very real crises which are ongoing here, on this Earth, every day.
If humans are to voyage into space, then it should only occur when
such excursions are the common heritage of humanity, when the
benefits of this are shared among all, when the costs can be
shouldered equally between all.
Otherwise, its just more "Whitey on the Moon"
[1]:
gopher://zaibatsu.circumlunar.space/0/~tfurrows/phlog/2020-05-22_reSpaceTravel.txt
[2]:
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1217991853615677440
