this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2026
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I don't want to be a naysayer or Luddite (wait, who am I kidding?), but I hard disagree with that take. A space economy will get us nowhere. Yeah, sure, some interesting technology (arguably) came from the Apollo program, and NASA has done some amazing astronomy with JWST and Hubble. But, as with so many other aspects of modern life, the cost is far too great to society as a whole. The energy needed to get anything to or from orbit is enormous, and there is no way around that. The thing we need to curb climate change is reduction of energy usage in any form (driving, flying, electricity, ect.). This is even on top of other issues in rocketry like ozone layer depletion and the light pollution described above. As such, if climate change really is the greatest threat to humanity (which it is), putting anything into space is not a worthwhile venture.
Yeah I mean, space is going nowhere. What's the rush exactly? We know there's nothing on Mars, so why should we destroy our own, beautiful planet to go there to "terraform" it?
If it was so fucking easy to terraform a barren wasteland, why can't we just fix the Sahara desert or something first?
Like any technology, doing it under capitalism is kinda the problem.
There's no restraint being put up to do it in a way that's actually FOR the people instead of for financial gain.
I think it can be worthwhile with lessened impact on the environment. Doing it the way we are with SpaceX launching a ton of cheap SATCOM satellites is BAD.