However, U.S. technology and military development is drastically falling behind China and Russia, leaving us vulnerable to attacks. The ranks of domestic suppliers are withering and offshore dependencies are growing on key offshore providers like Russia. For over 20 years, the U.S. has relied on the Russian RD-180 engine to power national security space launches.
China, too, had 55 space launches in 2021, pulling the edge over America’s 51 launches. Even countries that aren’t prominent hegemons, such as India, have a stake in the race as well; in March of 2019, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that the country had pulled off an anti-satellite weapon (ASAT) missile launch, which struck an Indian satellite in low Earth orbit, turning the object into debris.
China has exponentially increased their investment into space militarization and exploration, carrying out 152 launches in the past five years — more than any other country — up from 10 launches in 2007.
As space becomes increasingly dangerous with the development of ASATs and introduction of new players, a destructive space race becomes inevitable. In addition, the militaristic mindset that dictates how hegemons act has skewed leaders’ epistemology such that they view the world through a lens of violence as a means of solving all problems. For example, rather than the U.S. and China working together to build spatial solar panels, each country would rather invest billions of dollars into ASATs due to underlying motives of militarism, imperialism, and resource extraction.
The space race poses huge concerns, ranging from diplomatic relations to environmental harm.
China’s space policy consistently emphasizes the need for the People's Liberation Army to control space and deny access to adversaries. China has a requirement to achieve space superiority, defined as destroying an adversary’s space forces. There’s no ideal way to deter China’s encroaching power in space, as U.S. proliferation could cause China to shoot down U.S. space forces to make a large-scale first strike. The country has developed anti-satellite weapons to strike targets in geosynchronous orbit (GEO) which could be devastating as a kinetic ASAT attack would produce debris that could linger for generations.
Rocket launches also produce soot that destroys the ozone layer by increasing UV radiation; small pieces of soot and a chemical called alumina are created in the wake of rocket launches. Research shows that this material may build up in the stratosphere over time and slowly lead to the depletion of the ozone layer.
Space junk, or debris, could start to behave unpredictably: reflecting sunlight the wrong direction, changing our atmosphere, or altering the universe. We could be unintentionally wreaking havoc on civilizations far away from Earth, catalyzing future intergalactic wars.
Just going off on a tangent (not so relevant to this blog post but interesting!) about the space race, continued exploration can cause habitat loss for space microbes. NASA has proved that extraterrestrial life resides outside of Earth, such as enzymes called hydrogenases and the bacterium E. bugandensis. Countries, however, ignore concerns about coming in contact with microbes, as they only value space for its resources. Human colonization of celestial objects labels certain groups, microbes in this case, as disposable and “less than human.” This destroys their intrinsic value and renders them to politics of disposability, which is what can lead to a full-out microbe genocide for the benefit of humans to live peacefully on other planets or the Moon.
Human bodies contain trillions of bacteria, and those could infect the extrasolar planets, wiping out potential habitable niches and destroying any life potentially chilling on the planet. To establish habitats and civilization in space, humans would clear and clean out the habitable places, which inevitably means that extraterrestrial lifeforms die. Human activity in outer space contaminates previously sterile environments, leading to an ecosystem collapse from extraterrestrial life forms dying off. Not only does it cause microbes to die, it could cause another pandemic on Earth. In 2018, the bacterium Enterobacter, that can infect respiratory and organ systems, was found at the International Space Station which can spell trouble as human immune systems are especially stressed in space. This means that unexpected bacteria — or low quantities of bacteria that wouldn’t make a healthy person on Earth unwell — could potentially have outsize effects.
The anthropocentric mindset that humans have adopted has created beliefs that the environment is a supply of alternative energy/hegemonic power, causing nature to become an ontologically unappreciated standing reserve. For example, we sent the rover, Mars Pathfinder, and understood that we could colonize the planet, tempting us to see Mars as an escape from Earth and no longer a valuable part of nature. The same logic justifies the wiping out of microbes; rather, we should adopt biocentrism, or species egalitarianism, to view all living things to have equal moral standing — the opposite of anthropocentrism.
Questions
- Given that U.S. technology development and launch services are declining (in comparison to recent investments/progress by China and Russia), should the U.S. increase research and development into ASATs?
- Should the risk of environmental harm from space debris outweigh the opportunity of further space exploration?
- Is it possible to negotiate space treaties with all parties involved to ensure a “space traffic cop”?
- [SCMP] China-US space race heats up as Chinese firm plans over 40 launches this year
- [Politico] 'We're falling behind': 2022 seen as a pivotal lap in the space race with China
- [Politico] Russia's anti-satellite test launches debris and sparks tensions
- [FoPo] Beijing's Fight for the Final Frontier
- [FoPo] The New Space Race
- [Express] NASA alien life breakthrough: Asteroid discovery 'holds clues to origin of life'
- [Nat Geo] Will Mars missions make humans sick? Here's what we know.
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