Short Abstract

Since the founding of SpaceX, there has been a shift in space exploration operations and focus on who gets to produce the future. This panel will interrogate key questions of democratisation, future(s) building and alternatives to a hegemonic commercial space imaginary.

Description

Since the middle of the twentieth century, space exploration has largely been conducted by government agencies like NASA, the ESA and Roscosmos. However, since the founding of SpaceX in 2002, there has been a growing private sector influence in space exploration activities that are considered as disrupting the space industry. This shift is seen as natural, an evolution. Commercial companies, then, are inheriting the mantel of space exploration and proselytising about and crafting a future that claims to be “for all of humanity” but also responding to the climate and environmental crises with bold claims of a future off-Earth. Key questions need to be asked: What kind of future(s) are being opened up or closed off in this shift to the private sector? Who is setting the tone and agenda for the future and what, and who, does that look like? What does the democratisation of space mean? Who gets to decide what democracy means in space? This panel aims to explore all of these questions with the aim of offering alternatives to the capitalist commercialisation process ongoing as of now. Power is being shifted to a private sector ready to seize the future for its own ends and leave the rest of humanity in its wake as it explores the solar system and the universe. What alternative imaginaries exist to confront this hegemonic commercial space imaginary? But, more importantly, how do we disseminate these alternatives to a wider public exposed to the dominant visions of a capitalist future in space?

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