Why space exploration should not be left to several powerful countries

Indigenous people and other people must have a voice in decision-making in the space industry. This is how it can happen.

The space industry is expanding rapidly, and its value will triple in the next decade, from $630 billion in 2023 to $1.8 trillion by 2035. However, despite the fact that the number of countries with space programs is growing - with 77 space agencies around the world - many others are excluded.

In particular, many low- and middle-income (LMIC) countries, indigenous peoples and communities, as well as small States, are absent from the debate on space activities. Their concerns about how people act in space, environmental consequences, indigenous peoples' rights, different views on cosmology and demands for political and scientific participation are generally rejected.

Such marginalization has created tensions between these communities and the astronomical and space sectors. For example, in Hawaii, indigenous communities oppose the construction of telescopes on the top of Maunakea, a sacred place. And in 2024, the people of the Navajo nation challenged a (unsuccessful) commercial attempt to send human remains to the moon, which deeply upset them and many others.

Objections to LMICs and indigenous communities such as French Guiana and Sweden against space projects often frame space expansion as a type of colonialism and environmental exploitation. Politicians and technology magnates portray space exploration and colonization as a logical next step in the journey of mankind and use colonial language and images, such as planting flags, to describe humanity's journeys into space. This contradiction between the desire to go into space and those who benefit and influence this desire, exposes the differences between the dominant Western systems of knowledge and science and the systems of indigenous communities. And disputes are not limited to space; field launch and research and development facilities can also be exceptional.

For example, on May 3, residents of Starbase, a community in Texas consisting mainly of employees working at the SpaceX astronaut company, voted to become a city. This designation can give the company power over Boca Chica beach, where SpaceX conducts its launches. This has caused fierce opposition, including fears that SpaceX does not have the consent of indigenous peoples whose ancestral lands SpaceX pollute and pollute.

The creation of an inclusive and fair space program filled with diverse worldviews creates huge problems. Some indigenous groups and activists, such as Christopher Basaldu, co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network in Brownsville, argue that this is impossible in an industry so rooted in capitalism and colonialism. Nevertheless, most people will agree that space exploration should go beyond profit and narrow scientific goals.

Here we, a group of scientists and scientists from among indigenous peoples from five countries, present these problems and call for greater efforts to involve all humanity in space-related discussions and events. We would like to set a course towards inclusive and anti-colonial space exploration based on cooperation, consultation, respect, responsibility and mutual benefit for indigenous peoples, small States and other marginalized groups.

Cutter for some, not for everyone

Despite the fact that space should be explored for the benefit and in the interests of all mankind, international multilateral agreements on the use of space by man offer few ways to include different points of view. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty does not explicitly include the rights of indigenous peoples. And the broad rejection of the 1976 Bogota Declaration, in which equatorial countries called for the possession of geostationary orbits over their terrestrial territories (in accordance with Western land legislation), illustrates how small powers tend to be ignored.

Although the claims of these countries have been rejected as an attempt to appropriate outer space, many Western countries are doing so today, adopting licensing legislation and multilateral agreements to ensure their ability to exploit extraplanetary resources. For example, on the eve of manned missions to the Moon and Mars, since 2020, more than 50 countries have signed Artemis Accords, a set of principles developed by the U.S. government, NASA and other original signatory countries to lead civil space exploration based on the Outer Space Treaty.