April 11, 2020

Ready the Space Force!


Ready the Space Force!
The moon "in the not-too-distant future, next Sunday AD..." European Space Agency (ESA), Wikimedia Commons

On April 6, President Donald Trump announced an executive order to encourage the extraction of space resources by private companies. Russia's space agency, Roskosmos, is less than thrilled.

According to the agency's Deputy General for International Cooperation, Sergei Savelyov, the American plan would hurt the potential for cooperation implies the expropriation of space and the seizure of interplanetary territories. In this view, space should remain open for development, exploration, and scientific research of the international community.

"There have already been several examples in history when one country decided to start seizing territories in its interests. Everyone remembers what happened," Savelyov commented.

Space is today typically considered something of an international public domain, but if privatizing space might usher in a dystopian cyberpunk future full of space-corporations, space-marines, and cyborgs, we can't say we aren't looking forward to it.

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