LIBERAL GARBAGE: Virginia Tech academic: Stop sending humans into space — it’s imperialist

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[This is just pure rubbish. Jan]

The ‘inclusion of more social scientists’ needed at NASA, etc.

Yet another university academic is warning about continued human space exploration due to its “imperialist mindset.”

Savannah Mandel, a PhD candidate at Virginia Tech and an “outer space anthropologist,” adds to what seems to be a trendy argument about investigations into outer space.

According to Virginia Tech News, Mandel’s book “Ground Control: An Argument for the End of Human Space Exploration” argues that “rushing to send more humans to space […] mirrors an imperialist mindset that harms Earth’s humanity and environment.”

Mandel (pictured) said the space industry is “highly bureaucratic, highly politicized, and highly technical,” and the more she learned the more she began to question the utility of continued manned space operations.

She said she wants a “systemic change” in human-led space efforts, one of which is “the inclusion of more social scientists” at NASA and elsewhere.

Mandel noted that when she worked at Spaceport America she would “list all the pop stars going on Virgin Galactic flights,” but would also note the “poverty statistics for the local area.”

“It was such a stark contrast,” she said. “When I went to [Washington] D.C., and started working in space policy and science writing, I saw how militarized space exploration was and how colonial the rhetoric was around it.”

When looking at space-related/technology companies and organizations, Mandel said she asks “What is influencing this? Who is influencing this? What beliefs and values have gone into this?”

From the article:

One of the biggest concerns I have is rising interest in resource extraction, such as space mining. My dissertation focuses on how resources gained from space mining will be moderated, managed, and dispersed when they get back to Earth. Will further wealth disparities be created because of the mining of these resources? If only the wealthy have access to space, are they going to get richer from these resources while others don’t have access to them at all?

Another issue is who gets a voice in discussions about space. Is human space exploration a global conversation or a local one? When we set up colonies, what do they represent? Will they be a way of establishing territory and ownership over land, and what are the consequences of that? There are a lot of ethical questions to consider about how human space exploration affects those left on Earth.

Mandel called this the “Elysium Effect” in a 2019 article, presumably referring to the 2013 Matt Damon-led science fiction film about a massive space colony in Earth orbit inhabited only by the wealthy elite — and forbidden to everyone else.

The space anthropologist did note she’s in favor of continued unmanned space efforts, but didn’t elaborate on the growing effects of A.I. and robotic endeavors on space mining from celestial bodies like the moon and asteroids.

“I love space, but I really want us to not leave Earth in the dust because we’re moving so fast into an interstellar future,” Mandel said five years ago. “In Kim Stanley Robinson’s work [see here], the main character often ends up back on Earth wondering, ‘Why did we abandon Earth, this incredible planet we were born into and designed for?’”

Source: https://www.thecollegefix.com/virginia-tech-academic-stop-sending-humans-into-space-its-imperialist/