How space exploration can improve life on Earth | Leigh Phillips

John F Kennedy once called space-faring the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which Man has ever embarked’ But there is also a cynical, “anti-space” ideology emerging, especially on some parts of the left.

These space-critical partisans view the endeavour as a dangerous fantasy that distracts from the need to fix this world while delivering yet another source of carbon pollution and “extractivism”.

We would not be able to combat global heating, biodiversity loss, pollution and so many other environmental challenges without space-faring.

Going to space is in fact taking care of problems on Earth first.

Space-based remote sensing can identify the threat of pests and crop defects much earlier.

It’s a powerful weapon against the next major pandemic and against smaller-scale pandemics we currently struggle with.

We are only a few years away from space access being cheap and abundant.

But astronomers are already complaining that light reflection from the huge increase in the number of satellites threatens their ability to do their job.

We are faced with Hobson ’s choice of free-market fundamentalist case for space that ignores negative externalities, and a cynical, technophobic leftwing case against space.