Preface

Abstract

Extract The idea for this volume was first conceived in the autumn of 2016, at the inaugural meeting of the Society for Social and Conceptual Issues in Astrobiology (SSoCIA). It was there that two of us (Linda Billings and James Schwartz) wondered aloud to one another about putting together an edited volume dedicated to progressive, radical, and “counter-culture” perspectives on space exploration and the culture of spaceflight. Perhaps, we thought, we could assemble a spiritual successor to Stewart Brand’s 1977 edited collection Space Colonies (A Coevolution Book), which platformed a variety of environmentalist critiques (and defenses) of space exploration during the public commotion surrounding Princeton physicist Gerard O’Neill’s advocacy for orbital habitats in the 1970s. Beginning in the 2010s, however, it was no longer O’Neill’s “high frontier” that was captivating spaceflight culture. Instead, it was Richard Branson’s and Virgin Galactic’s efforts to grow the space tourism industry. It was Jeff Bezos’s and Blue Origin’s plans to create space-based industrial workforces. It was Elon Musk’s and SpaceX’s mission to make humanity a “multiplanetary” species. In other words, we are heirs to a spaceflight culture, ensconced as the “NewSpace” movement, that by all appearances is dedicated to promoting the interests of the most wealthy and powerful Earthlings.