What Will Ethical Space Exploration Look Like?

If the dreams of space agencies and private companies come to fruition, within a couple of decades we’ll have orbiting hotels and lunar mining colonies, and the first human visitors will be en route to the Red Planet. But astrophysicist Erika Nesvold argues that the shape of tomorrow’s space expeditions and conflicts could depend on ethical choices people make today. She’s also a cofounder of JustSpace Alliance, a nonprofit organization that advocates for a more inclusive and ethical future in space, and a developer for Universe Sandbox, a physics-based space simulator. Nesvold points out that so far humanity doesn’t have the best track record in space, and current challenges mirror Earthly ones. Space junk litters low-Earth orbit, launch vehicles create their own carbon emissions, light pollution is transforming the night sky, and space industry leaders SpaceX and Blue Origin have been accused of labor rights abuses.