The Artemis Accords and the US's Ambition to Commercialize Space

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The US has by virtue of the Artemis Accords, garnered the support for this. What I really see is like a UN run around. And I don't know, there will be 15 signatories at this point who are all allies of the US. Crucially, they do not have the agreement in this regard of China or Russia in part because the US Space Agency has barred itself from speaking at all or working at all with China.

Paris Marx is joined by Mary-Jane Rubenstein to discuss how ideas that underpinned colonization and Manifest Destiny are now setting the foundation for the billionaire space race and the plan to colonize the cosmos.

Mary-Jane Rubenstein is the author of Astrotopia: The Dangerous Religion of the Corporate Space Race. She’s also a Professor of Religion and Science in Society at Wesleyan University.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.

Also mentioned in this episode:

An excerpt of Mary-Jane’s book was published in Metapolis.
Paris wrote about the business behind the billionaire space race and the problem with Starlink.
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin recently got a contract to build a moon lander for NASA.
One of Barack Obama’s legacies is pushing for the privatization of space flight.
The US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015 and Artemis Accords are attempts to unilaterally rewrite space law for US commercial interest.
Catherine L. Newell wrote Destined for the Stars: Faith, the Future, and America's Final Frontier.

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