Some big news in the world has been the apparent de facto space race for billionaires. Former Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos and Virgin CEO Richard Branson are trying to race to space. This comes in the shadow of Elon Musks endeavours with SpaceX.
What honestly started as a promise for a new era in space flight has devolved into a PR battle between billionaires. A race of egos versus the common good of humanity. I can’t help but think back to the last space race between the Soviet Union and the USA in the race for the moon. President John F. Kennedy’s call for the United States to land a man on the moon and return him to earth, was a call to something greater than just nationalistic jingoism.
The effort to put a man on the moon was a monumental task. Requiring the best minds not only at NASA, but in the entire aerospace industry to accomplish this feat. Scientists and engineers from all over the free world helped to contribute to the space program. The result was afterwards, all of humanity looked upon those footsteps on the moon and took pride in it.
This space race we are excluded from it. The July 24, 1969 moon landings gave imagination to millions of future scientists. The thought that the future was going to be better was in our grasps. Truly all of humanity could seek the stars. The race between Bezos, Musk and Branson to reach space, reeks of self indulgent fantasy. A con job inflicted up on us all, that we too one day may join them on a flight to space.
Only their history has shown that this isn’t the case. Billionaires don’t share, and they don’t work to keep things cheap for the rest of us. This is now something only the Uber rich now get to play in. They own space, while the rest of us deal with their mess they’ve left here on Earth. Which might be a good thing in the long run. There are many things the Earth needs more of. Clean energy technology, more sustainable living conditions, cleaner water. The one thing we can do with out, is the billionaires.
Also this is a great thread on what the reality is going to be:
Joel MacLeod.ca 