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I have been encountering a lot of content on space over the past year. And not all was related to the recent viral all-female Blue Origin flight.
A little research led me to discover that some describe the current times as a second Space Age. The first Space Age began in 1957 when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 and reached its cultural zenith with the moon landing in 1969. Arguably, this first Space Age closed in 2003 with the Columbia shuttle tragedy — a moment that dimmed public enthusiasm and slashed funding for space exploration. Space infused collective imagination in those years: science fiction, cosmic futurism and astro-aesthetics in fashion, design and architecture boomed. Think Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and David Bowie’s Space Oddity.
The current Second Space Age is characterised more by commercial ambitions rather than national pride. Space is a new frontier for commercial development where private companies increasingly set the pace.
The most visible manifestation is the rise of space tourism. Recreational space travel is clearly still limited to the ultra-rich, or as quaintly put by the author of this opinion article on the Financial Times: a joy-ride for the 0.0001% (available as archive piece here).
The number of satellites swirling around our planet is increasing dramatically, guaranteeing our internet connectivity, GPS systems, and ATM transactions. To accompany this, we see an alarming growth in space debris.
Space colonisation is no longer an idea for a sci-fi book, but a concrete political and commercial agenda. NASA’s Artemis programme - dedicated to developing technology for longer-term residency on the moon over the next 10 to 20 years - is the prime example. China has also announced its plans to put humans on the Moon by 2030, while India is working on its own space presence. The moon base would then act as a pit-stop to reach Mars, the ultimate space colonisation destination.
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (or SETI, an acronym I discovered while researching this article) is also ongoing, with researchers scanning the approximately 6000 exoplanets for signs of life.
The original space race was animated by idealism and triumphalism. This time round there is awe, but also unease - tinged with eco-anxiety, fear of deepening inequality, and perversive uncertainty. The resources below match that: explore a series of informative pieces, inspiring imagery, stories from out of space, and critical views to set the do’s and dont’s of intergalactic futures.
Sanjna
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