In his book Lunacy, philosopher Ben Bramble considers 10 ‘false’ pledges of the new Space Age – this era of Blue Origin, SpaceX and private entities aspiring to see millions of humans not just visiting space, but living and operating there indefinitely in thriving colonies.
While Bramble touches on future possibilities – mining asteroids, terraforming planets, building settlements – he’s a cautious, cynical observer, laying out the practicalities, morality and ethics under a philosopher’s microscope.
More on human spaceflight
“Humanity has not been properly consulted about what is planned for space in the coming years”, a “gross omission” that is Lunacy’s premise.
It considers the reasons for the new Space Age – saving humanity from self-destruction, contacting alien civilisations, ending war, poverty and hunger in post-scarcity societies and affording us better futures – and how difficult these may be to realise; overwhelmingly difficult, in fact, requiring decades or centuries to accomplish.
SQUIRREL_14026891
Mars colonies, Bramble notes, won’t happen anytime soon and we’re nowhere close to mastering technologies needed to make them self-sufficient.
Terraforming tech could be unattainable for millennia. By then, we’d have had ample time to figure out how to save our own planet anyway – or gone extinct with it.
Saving Earth’s environment and resources would require colossal lifestyle changes, some self-imposed, others enforced, and Lunacy touches here on questions of moral justness.
An end of war based on an end of scarcity, he contends, is a naive supposition; human nature remains, even in space. Nor might the innate human desire to make contact with alien civilisations turn out in our favour.
Bramble also looks at the ethics of recreating Earth-like conditions on worlds that have evolved differently for billions of years. We should revere such places, he argues, and treat them with awe, as part of our extraterrestrial heritage.
And we should revere society as a framework within which our future expansion into space must take place. It’s a thought-provoking, page-turning read.
We spoke to Bramble to find out more about his thoughts on human spaceflight and why humanity's interests should lie elsewhere for now.
Do we the public fully grasp the spaceflight ambitions of agencies like NASA?
"Not fully, no. Agencies and companies talk about backing up humanity or building an amazing future, but a great deal of the real motivation is geopolitical rivalry, military advantage, and money.
"None of that is hidden, exactly – it's just not what makes the inspiring headlines.
"We'd be better informed if we treated space announcements with the same scrutiny we bring to any other public spending, and if science journalists felt freer to ask who actually benefits, and to say so plainly."
What's the most flimsy argument made in favour of crewed spaceflight?
"That we need humans up there to do the science. We don't. Almost everything we've learned about the cosmos has come from robots and telescopes, and they keep getting better, cheaper, and safer.
"Crewed missions are vastly more expensive and dangerous, and they're justified mainly by corporate and military aims that have little to do with discovery.
"Humans must go to explore" sounds noble, but as a scientific rationale it simply doesn't hold up.
What were your thoughts on the Artemis II mission?
"Like most people, I found it thrilling, and felt a swell of pride to be human — we sent four people farther from Earth than anyone in history and they were extraordinarily brave.
"But I was also aware of being gently manipulated. The bravery and wonder are real; they're just being used to sell something.
"Artemis II only makes sense as a step toward what comes next – the landings, the base, Mars. It might have been worth it if those were worth doing. But they're not."
Where should we spend that time, money and resource instead?
"I'd keep funding space science generously – the robotic missions and telescopes are among our finest achievements.
"My objection is to everything else now planned up there: the mining, the settlements, the tourism, the militarisation.
"That's where the real money is heading, and it buys us nothing we need. I'd redirect it to the one genuinely urgent project in front of us: repairing the living world we already have, before we lose it."
What are your thoughts on crewed spaceflight? Let us know by emailing contactus@skyatnightmagazine.com
Lunacy by Ben Bramble is published by Princeton University Press
