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Can Space Exploration Save Humanity?

Can Space Exploration Save Humanity? | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

NASA astronaut Drew Feustel is pictured tethered to the International Space Station during a spacewalk on June 14, 2018. Image courtesy of NASA.

A Zócalo/ASU Interplanetary Initiative Event
Moderated by Lisa Margonelli, Senior Editor, Issues in Science and Technology

The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 proclaimed that celestial objects are “the province of all mankind.” But so far, space travel has been a costly and exclusive province (fewer than 600 people have been in orbit). Today’s headlines about space are dominated by billionaires who dream of escaping their Earth-bound lives or providing new tourist thrills. And the biggest space travel successes in recent memory belong to robots rather than humans. How can we better use space exploration in service of all humanity, not just a favored few? What sorts of social structures and governance practices might make possible greater exploration or even colonization of space? And how might the challenges of traveling through the void of space help us survive an increasingly inhospitable climate here on our home planet?

Analog astronaut and geoscientist Sian Proctor, designer and co-founder of Space Exploration Architecture Melodie Yashar, and Lindy Elkins-Tanton, principal investigator of the NASA Psyche Mission and director of the ASU Interplanetary Initiative, visit Zócalo to discuss the next generation of space exploration and its implications for Earth.

The Takeaway

Can Earthlings Save Our Planet, Achieve World Peace—And Make a Home on the Moon? | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Can Earthlings Save Our Planet, Achieve World Peace—And Make a Home on the Moon?

Space Exploration Won’t Create the Utopian Society of Star Trek… Unless We Solve Our Problems Here on Earth First

The title question of last night’s Zócalo/ASU Interplanetary Initiative event was “Can Space Exploration Save Humanity?” But it quickly became clear that an inversion was required. According to a panel …