Human Nature and Private Space

Whether we are telling stories and finding meaning in the stars or sending out a satellite to explore them, something about looking up into the night sky has always captivated us. Humanity’s inherent curiosity and desire to explore the unknown has carried us across the globe and into countless new ages of technology, medicine, and information. It is this thirst for knowledge that over the course of the last century has pushed us to take our first steps to exploring the ultimate frontier. Though initially motivated by flexing our rocket propulsion muscles at our cold war adversaries, the space exploration effort made by the United States eventually became much more genuine in its mission. Though perhaps underfunded and slow-moving as a small arm of the ultimate bureaucracy, the Space Program’s goal was not to make a profit or stake a claim, but to explore space and expand human knowledge of the universe we live in.

Everything changed in the beginning of the 21st century with the emergence of privately funded space companies. For the first time it is not the government but for profit companies that are leading the push into the stars. These companies can move quicker, be bolder, and there are simply more organizations trying to go to space. This change promises much more rapid advances in space travel technology and human expansion throughout the solar system; SpaceX set the aspirational goal to land humans on Mars in 2024. However the basic mission of the exploration is fundamentally changed; instead of going to space for the exploration, private space companies central goal will always be profit. It’s important that we fully understand the current actions and plans of these companies to know how deeply this will alter the course of human space travel and thus the future of humanity as a whole. Privatized space, while quickening our technological development, may undermine hopes for unselfish exploration in the interest of market gain.

When private space companies like SpaceX first emerged, our initial reaction was excitement, rightfully so I believe. But in our excitement both the government and the public have failed to evaluate just what private organizations should be allowed to do in space. I say that we were correct to be excited for the very simple reason that more people and money being dedicated to space exploration is extremely, well, exciting. When it was founded in 2002, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said that the ultimate mission of the company is to reduce the cost of space transportation for the purpose of colonizing Mars, and that really is quite appealing. However, it is important to remember that SpaceX is not a government but a for-profit organization that was not elected. I believe that it is very problematic to give an organization that answers to no one virtually unbounded, possibly exclusive access to the shared resource that is outer space.

The tragedy of the commons is an economic problem where everyone has free access to a common resource; it results in overconsumption and ultimately depletion of the resource. Here on Earth, it has occurred many times especially with our water: when a river, once plentiful and free, is run dry by over-irrigation, when a lake, once pristine and alive, is sullied and poisoned by unregulated chemical dumping, or when the oceans, once teeming with life, are overfished to extinction. There are some things in this world that fundamentally cannot belong to one person or company: the air we breathe, the water in the oceans and rivers, and, importantly, the vast universe surrounding us. It is easy to forget, living here on terra firma, that everything we see in our day to day lives, trees, rocks, skyscrapers, football games, wars, weddings, pianos, and almost every single potato chip, all resides on a little planet in the insurmountable expanse of space. That little fun thing that we talk about with our friends, or learn about in astronomy class, outer space, is not just some abstract idea, but is, in fact, almost everything in the universe. While most of that is not going to be influenced by privatized space, it is still important to recognize that not only is space a much larger part of our reality than we realize, but it is also the cradle for the future of humanity. I believe that we should recognize that, as outer space is an integral part of the human experience and a valuable resource, organizations that act independently with little input from the public should not have absolute freedom with it.

This problem has come to light recently in one of SpaceX’s newest ventures, Starlink. The ultimate goal of Starlink is to provide high-speed internet access everywhere on earth by launching a net of satellites into orbit. Essentially it is a massive network of cell towers launched into space. This venture promises to be both extremely profitable and beneficial to millions of people around the world with no internet. In fact, this project has already begun; in May of 2016 60 of the first operational Starlink satellites were launched. For a few months, news of the project flew under (over) the radar, until November, when concerns started to be raised with the project’s impact. As all satellites do, Starlink satellites reflect the light of the sun back down towards Earth, making them shine like little stars in the dark night sky. For the roughly 5000 manmade satellites currently orbiting the Earth, this has been of little consequence. Most of the time, only a very astute stargazer would be able to identify them zipping alone through the stars. However, the problem is that Starlink satellites aren’t alone. They are launched in groups and travel in relatively close proximity in straight geometric lines; they do this to maintain constant communication. While functional, this causes the satellites to stick out in the night, forming long trains of glimmering dots across the sky. It is quite a foreign sight, that SpaceX and Elon Musk have so cutely nicknamed mega constellations. It may initially seem unimportant, but it is vital to note that the plan for Starlink is not to stop at sixty satellites cluttering the night sky, or a hundred, a thousand, or even ten thousand. The initial total was 12,000 Starlink satellites, more than twice the total satellites currently in orbit. However, SpaceX recently filed paperwork to the FCC for 30,000 additional satellites, for a total of 42,000 satellites, more than 5 times more than the total number of satellites that have ever been launched into orbit, all in low-orbit, geometrically arranged into a massive net surrounding the whole planet. If nothing else, I admit that they are ambitious.

The overwhelming ubiquity of the Starlink mega-constellation forces us to deal with some existential problems. First, there is the problem of astronomy: across the world astronomers and astrophysicists use extremely sensitive telescopes to observe the faintest light in the furthest reaches of the observable universe. These experiments often investigate black holes and dark matter, two of the greatest unknowns in our universe, both of which, as their names suggest, require complete darkness to properly observe. Already, with only 1,200 (not 42,000) satellites in orbit, the artificial constellation created by Starlink has disrupted these experiments. Secondly, while it may seem old-fashioned, it is troubling that everywhere on the planet, even in the most natural, isolated wilderness, you could look up into the night sky, where once you saw only the great unknown expanse of the universe, and see a geometric mega-constellation of manmade little dots, launched from Cape Canaveral, buzzing around spewing internet, making money for the guy who started PayPal. Starlink has both disrupted humanity’s attempts to discover more about the nature of the universe, and began to hinder our sense of wonder at our place within it. It is not that I am vehemently against providing internet to everyone; the problem is that a private organization with no real approval from the citizens of the world is able to fundamentally alter a solemn part of the human experience. Is there really no other way? Maybe it is just that a private company, determined to make a profit, recognized something that it could do to make money using its unrivaled access to space, and went ahead and started doing it.

Throughout the course of human history, greed is something that has always plagued us. We cut down forests for wood, destroy mountains for ore, drain the Earth of fuel, steal, and kill each other for our own gain. Human life and civilization has consumed so much of the earth’s natural bounty, to the point that we are now near catastrophe. For so long, in the interest of private gain, we have torn resources from the earth, destroying the world we once had. In our first private ventures in space, we have followed the same pattern. Private space companies are leading the charge, but no matter how advanced their technology, there is something very brutal about their profit-hungry methods. For the first time, as we look out to the moon, to Mars, to the frontier of the stars, we have a chance not just to take and destroy, but to build something truly our own. So it begs the question: what are we? As we look to a new home among the stars, we should learn from our past mistakes and set out with hopes of exploration and prosperity, not domination and consumption. Does our drive to explore come from an inherent greed or an inherent curiosity? That is the question we must ask ourselves as we begin to finally confront the great unknown of the universe. And I suppose we will find out.