I want to live in the Star Trek universe, on a science vessel seeing the beauty of the cosmos. Instead, we are stuck on Earth, dealing with consequences of late-stage capitalism on our society, our environment, and our bodies.
Space is a microcosm of what’s happening in the wider society but given its strategic importance and the average person’s fascination with it, let me just point out that things are not looking great.
The Trump administration is hoping to shrink NASA’s budget by an unprecedented amount, cancelling incredible missions, some of which already in space. It’s not about the money — NASA’s budget was 0.37 percent of the US GDP. The bullshit claim is about investing on human missions to Mars, and it’s bullshit because they are cancelling missions vital to study and monitor Mars. Would you go on a hike without checking the weather?
On the other side of the bullshit coin, Elon Musk has announced his plan to get humans to Mars within years, and building a city within decades. He plans to take people on his space vehicle, Starship, which explodes more often than not. Trump and Musk have also been fighting, with Musk threatening briefly to strand astronauts on the international space station. He can do that too, because his company SpaceX is NASA’s only way to get humans to space.
Some people think to get to Trek, we need to be a spacefaring civilisation. No, to get Trek we need a society like in Star Trek. And this is why we are not getting to Mars any time soon. Elton was right. Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids. In fact, it's cold as hell with poisonous soil and constantly being showered in ultraviolet light.
There is not going to be a city on Mars because there has been literally zero serious investment and thought by the people “in charge” in working out the structural, physiological, social, and legal needs that are necessary to build inhabited outposts on another world.
For further reading check the fantastic book by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith A City On Mars - I interviewed them last year.
Other Space News in Brief Scientists have discovered the biggest explosion since “the Big Bang” - an Extreme Nuclear Transient (ENT), 25 times more powerful than the brightest supernova.
A new record in solar observations, at the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, located in Hawai’i, astronomers have snapped images of “magnetic curtains” on the Sun at a scale of 20 kilometers (12.4 miles). We had never before seen details on the Sun at such a scale.
