# The Perils of Billionaire-Driven Space Ventures for Humanity
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The Looming Dangers of Space Capitalism
Consider a future where Earth is marred by climate change and nuclear conflict. Imagine a world where nearly half of the human population has disappeared, leaving behind a landscape ravaged by firestorms and vast areas rendered uninhabitable. The soot that fills the upper atmosphere blocks sunlight, leading to catastrophic agricultural failures and the collapse of entire civilizations.
In this grim reality, humanity might have developed the technology to escape to other planets. However, all hope is dashed as the Earth's orbit becomes enveloped in a dense cloud of space debris, rendering any spacecraft perilous and halting any future explorations into the cosmos. This terrifying scenario, known as the Kessler effect, serves as a stark warning about the consequences of unchecked space activities.
To grasp the significance of this potential disaster, a brief overview of space exploration's evolution and commercialization is essential. After the historic moon landing, human-crewed missions beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) ceased in 1972 with the Apollo program. LEO, situated approximately a thousand kilometers above the Earth, is where most of our satellites now reside.
In the early days of the Space Age, satellites were scarce. Yet, following the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik in 1957, satellite launches increased steadily, with private enterprises joining the fray in the 2010s. According to Supriya Chakrabarti, a physics professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, the number of satellites launched surged, with over 1,400 sent into LEO just in 2021.
So, what’s the current satellite landscape? As of June 2022, nearly 9,000 satellites, both operational and defunct, orbit our planet, as reported by the United Nations’ Outer Space Objects Index.
The Dual Nature of Satellites
Certainly, many of these satellites serve critical functions, such as capturing images of celestial bodies, mapping the Earth, predicting weather patterns, and enhancing global communication. However, they also pose the risk of permanently trapping humanity on a dying planet.
Space, once perceived as distant and unattainable, is now intertwined with our daily lives, often without us realizing it. Whether using GPS to navigate or accessing real estate listings, we rely on satellites every day. Yet, alarmingly, around half of these satellites are inactive, contributing to the growing problem of space debris. The privatization of space raises concerns, particularly as private companies dominate satellite ownership—Elon Musk’s SpaceX operates over 1,600 satellites, while NASA has only 60.
The Threat of Collisions
Satellites in LEO travel at astonishing speeds of 28,000 kilometers per hour, completing numerous orbits daily. But what happens if two of these fast-moving satellites collide? A notable incident in 2009 involved a defunct Russian spacecraft colliding with an active commercial satellite, producing over 2,300 fragments of debris, each traveling at lethal speeds. This event could have initiated a catastrophic chain reaction, leaving our orbit littered with dangerous debris.
In another incident on August 31, 2016, the European Space Agency revealed that a tiny particle struck the Copernicus Sentinel-1A satellite, causing significant damage. This illustrates how even small objects can inflict severe harm in the vacuum of space.
Trapped on a Dying Planet
Currently, the most pressing threats to humanity are climate change and nuclear conflict. Even if we manage to overcome these challenges, our planet's lifespan is finite. Estimates suggest that Earth's atmosphere will begin losing oxygen in about 1.1 billion years, indicating that we have only 20% of our planet's habitable time left. While this may seem distant, it underscores the necessity for humanity to explore and colonize other worlds.
The future of space exploration should not be left to the whims of profit-driven corporations. Instead, it requires a collective effort from all of humanity, ensuring that the pursuit of space is conducted with the utmost responsibility and foresight.
The privatization of space exploration has significantly contributed to the pollution surrounding our planet. It may be time to reconsider a return to government-led initiatives in space, as the unchecked greed of capitalism threatens to contaminate the final frontier, just as it is already damaging our planet's ecosystems.
Public agencies like NASA and the European Space Agency are accountable to the public, responding to elected officials. In contrast, corporations primarily serve their shareholders, often prioritizing profit over the collective good. As Milton Friedman famously stated, "the only social responsibility of business is to increase its profits." This raises the critical question: if space exploration is vital for humanity's long-term survival, should we entrust its future to corporate interests?