Mission Statement [edit]
Each day, we inch closer to the reality that flying to space will be but a vacation trip. Where humans will be scattered across the cosmos — anywhere and everywhere but Earth. Space exploration often has a clash between two tides: the curiosity in exploring the universe and our responsibility of taking care of our planet amidst the journey. Our history on Earth should teach us more than anything that we never get things right the first time. Or second. Or third. As a college student learning more about the cosmos myself, I, too, wonder if we can ever strike a balance between environmental consciousness and space-driven curiosity. When, if at all, is something going to give?
This blog is about raising ethical awareness in space and preventing the worst (sometimes glorified) doomsday scenarios that much of science fiction speculates. It’s about investigating all the rights, wrongs, and gray areas of space research. From the weaponizing of space to understanding its economic and sustainable impact, we will blast off on a mission to uncover the hard truths of our space age. Buckle up. This blog is a journey about our journey to the cosmos.
Now for some disclaimers. No, I am not an astronaut. No, I do not hold a PhD or even a bachelor’s degree (yet) that concerns astronomy. No, I haven’t memorized all the astrology signs. But I am proud to be a learner, and I want to bring you along with me in investigating the ethics of past and current space missions.
It wouldn’t be long before politics crept its way into the cosmos. How on Earth did space get political? The answer is in the question (cue a wave from a fellow human). The Space Race from about seven decades ago set a record-breaking pace for space research. Imagine the fierce competition between the US and the USSR in a battle for “firsts”: the first satellite to space, the first human in orbit, the first human on the moon. It took a politically charged movement to provide momentum for space exploration. Once the US got its whoop from the first man on the moon, they chopped NASA’s budget like a lumberjack working on a spruce tree. That adventurist period, the Space Race, set a precedent for us. We didn’t send a man to the moon to tell us what it was like. He went to exemplify dominance and show how humans on Earth were fighting to claim their space in space.
Fast forward to the modern day, and nations aren’t the only ones reaching for the stars. Companies like Space X show that with just the right amount of money and aerospace engineers, anyone can take on a space mission. With this progressing accessibility, we hold a weighted responsibility of not just what we will do in space but how we will do it. We must now consider the environmental impact of rocketry in exploring the universe and the ethical dilemmas that arise from human civilization expanding beyond our home planet. So many unanswered questions are already among us, and it is only by navigating through these gray areas that we can find our shining star of doing space right.
But finding that star and navigating through the labyrinths of loopholes in space regulation requires a great deal of accountability. Space is both nobody’s and everybody’s, and often problems are left with no immediate solution, especially for an internationally scaled issue such as space junk. Unlike ever before, the Space Age calls for global cooperation and liability for Earth and beyond. Just as nations butt heads on land, the political unease leaked into the desolate and frigid outer space. You don’t even want to imagine what a space war would look like, but we’ll uncover more of the divide within our “unified” exploration of space.
Without a voice to critique our progress, we’ll drag our problems along like a bomb with muted ticks so that it blows when no one will suspect it. That’s where this blog comes in as one of many vessels to blast our cosmic ambitions in the right trajectory. Forget the latest picture of Jupiter. I want to put a spotlight on the human condition bleeding into space. I want to talk about the sacrifices that go into our cosmic endeavors, explore just how vague the space law is, and call out blatant issues that need action now.
The universe consists of impossible worlds and puzzling wonders that we have only scratched the surface to understand. Now that we can finally take a step (be it a rocket trip) closer to the inner cosmos, it all comes down to how we go about our journey there. As humans, we can’t just “do space.” We have to do it right! I am Stephan Bellamy, and this is my blog, Space by Stephan.
Updated: November 15, 2022
