Author: Mary-Jane Rubenstein, Dean of Social Sciences, Professor of Religion and Science and Technology Studies, Wesleyan University

The past decade has seen a rapid expansion of the commercial space industry. Rival nations are competing for prime military and economic positions beyond the Earth. Public and private entities are clamoring to mine the Moon, and a growing halo of space junk is polluting low Earth orbit. In a 2023 white paper, a group of concerned astronomers warned against repeating Earthly “colonial practices” in outer space. But what’s wrong with colonizing space if there’s nothing there to begin with? I am a philosopher of science and religion who has been writing about the space industry for several years. As…