The American Empire and 21st Century Outer Space: Late, Early, or On-Time Arrival?

• In Event: The New Space Era and American Empire: SpaceX, Satellite Launching, and Local Community Responses

Abstract

As of January 2020, approximately 9,000 satellites had been launched into outer space. Estimates for 2030 predict over 100,000 satellites will be in orbit around the planet, in no small part due to the megaconstellations of SpaceX and Starlink. Kuiper, OneWeb, Thousand Sails, and other entities will likely saturate LEO orbital space. Beyond the immediate confines of Earth, more satellites will occupy Cislunar Space as components of Moon mining, the establishment and maintenance of Coordinated Lunar Time, and astronomical instrumentation and observatories on the Shielded (Dark) Side of the Moon, hopefully before plans to orbit scores of lunar mirror-satellites bring permanent reflected daylight to the surface of the Moon to assist in various aspects of lunar labor.

Many might perceive the 21st Century American Empire as early, rather than late, to this expansion to the Moon and initial phase of the transformation from the Earthly to the Planetary. This may well be the case, yet this seemingly early arrival might also be seen as an uncontrollable onrush, an increasing acceleration invoking the dromology of Paul Virilio and the general accident. This paper will cast questions of the timeliness of the 21st Century American Empire in the context of The New Outer Space of the 21st Century. A particular focus will be on the activities of SpaceX and Starlink as it orbits and de-orbits its satellites at an ever-increasing pace. Some comparisons with the 19th Century American Empire will be offered, particularly comparisons with canal, post road, and railroad rights-of-way of the 19th century and 21st century satellite orbits. Another significant issue is the privatization of lunar materials (and other outer space-harvested materials such as asteroid materials.) The 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty ensures the Moon belongs to no one; yet some sort of transformation of lunar rocks or similar material must convert that material from public trust to private ownership once those materials are removed from the Moon. A precedent is the Moon rocks returned to Earth by Apollo astronauts, as those rocks eventually transformed into properties held by the USA government, and more recently, properties sold at outer space-themed auctions. Another precedent for the transformation of public-to-private ownership is Antarctica, like the Moon protected by its own (1959) Treaty; yet ice core samples, meteorites, and microbes are among the Antarctic objects transformed from public to private property. The paper will conclude with comments interpreting the relative earliness or lateness of the American Empire for 21st Century Outer Space in the contexts of Planetary Boundaries, The Great Acceleration, and The Gaia Hypothesis.

Author

• James Schwoch, Northwestern University