Guide: How to Establish an Interplanetary Civilization – and How Not To
A rocket, packed with hundreds of people, roars to life, shaking the Earth beneath it. 73.5 meganewtons of thrust force are being exerted on the ground as the rocket fights the force of gravity and pierces the atmosphere. 238,900 miles later, the spacecraft enters the orbit of the moon. Passengers peer out their windows, viewing weblike networks of insulated complexes and acres of solar panels covering the white lunar surface. In the distance, they see astronauts handle large industrial drills and cranes, extracting rich natural resources like iron, uranium, and titanium to export back to Earth. However, these voyagers have not completed their journey. The spacecraft exits the Moon’s orbit and travels another 34.6 million miles, over the course of nine months, reaching the red planet and their new home: Mars.
This envisioned reality is not too distant from today. The United States’ Artemis missions plan to send astronauts to the Moon as early as 2026, hoping to eventually build a long term moon base. The Starship program from SpaceX has also made rapid progress over the past few years in designing a fully reusable rocket capable of landing on Mars. The need to establish multiple planetary homes only becomes more urgent because of pressing issues like climate change and the looming threat of nuclear war which threatens to wipe out all life on Earth. As humanity approaches the technological capabilities to become an interplanetary species, settling and colonizing distant celestial bodies, history once again prepares to repeat itself. Humanity’s past exploration ventures, settlement, and endeavours in new lands have been defined by bloodshed, greed, and political turmoil. Drawing from the legacy of exploration, colonialism, and economic globalisation, humanity's venture into its next interplanetary frontier must be guided by principles that prioritize the collective advancement of humanity. Rather than relying on a model of brutal colonialism, nationalism, and unchecked libertarian free market principles, the betterment of life for all needs to be regarded as the highest virtue.
New World, Old Greed
In the 1400s, Europeans looked out to a blue abyss of endless water to their west. To them, it was an impassable barrier; their relentless drive to defy the impossible was rooted in the human drive for exploration and pioneering new worlds. This European sentiment is apparent in Christopher Columbus’s Journal, in which he wrote that, “I believe that there are many lands to be discovered in this ocean sea, places full of marvels and wonders that will astonish the world when revealed.”
Yet, when the keel of Portuguese caravels first carved into the gentle soft sands of the Ivory Coast, the dreams of a service to humanity by exploring the unknown vanished. Instead, these explorers were forced to fulfill their tasks assigned by their monarch overlords: to fill the pockets of the European elite. Eventually, the passages between Africa and Europe would not be defined by explorative endeavours. Rather, it became a highway for thousands of ships transporting ivory, gold and slaves. What was once an honorable mission rooted in the human spirit’s relentless yearning to uncover the unknown became a soulless enterprise built on the suffering and subjugation of others.
As Portuguese boats busily glided along trade winds up and down the African coast, Christopher Columbus, blessed by the Spanish Crown, undertook the most daring and ambitious endeavor in human history up to this point: traversing the vast and uncharted expanse of the Atlantic Ocean. However, once again, when Columbus’s crew made landfall in San Salvador, this vision of challenging humanity’s limits and seeking out the known ceased to exist. Columbus’s voyages, and those of the explorers who succeeded him, were defined by the extraction of rich natural resources and human slaves. Settlement was of no priority because of the focus on consolidating resources. In a letter to the Spanish Crown, Columbus, needing to please his voyage’s patrons, grudgingly wrote, “I have come to gain gold, not land” (Journal of the First Voyage of Christopher Columbus). Humanity’s exploration of the unknown has followed a simple pattern: while voyages begin with noble and honorable intentions, the relentless influence from powerful self-serving materialists reshapes the objectives of exploration into hollow and sometimes monstrous pursuits. Voyages become mere material transport runs, free of the establishment of self-sustaining settlements for new pioneers. As humanity prepares to send explorers to the Moon and beyond, it is necessary to avoid repeating the flaws of mankind’s past. Unlike the Portuguese or the Spanish Crowns, the main funders and supporters of explorative endeavours must not hold the objective of obtaining national or personal wealth from virgin lands to any significant concern. The goal of humanity's celestial aspirations is to ensure the survival of the human race, not to profit people back on Earth. If mankind’s interplanetary mission becomes fixated on extracting wealth and rich resources for the mother nation, history has proven that creating self-sustaining settlements meant to operate independently would be difficult since gaining wealth would be the first priority. Instead, the establishment of the first celestial outposts should be driven by the inherent human desire to achieve greatness and provide the greatest service to humanity: ensuring its everlasting survival.
Rule Like Britannia (Sometimes)
Once these first outposts have anchored into their respective celestial bodies, it becomes necessary to determine how they are ruled. The history of mankind’s administration of faraway settlements is well recorded. The British Empire is most famous in this respect. At its peak, the British Empire conquered a fourth of the world. While much of their lands were devoid of permanent British settlements, several significant territories, including the thirteen colonies, Canada, Australia, and South Africa, were settled by British natives for the pure purpose of finding new land to live on. The administration of these overseas British citizens was complicated and varied in success. All colonies were located far from their motherland, England, and, therefore, the imperial government in London was limited in its capacity to enforce order. In the case of the thirteen colonies of North America, the government in London attempted to directly influence colonial affairs. The British parliament, which had no colonial representatives, administered a series of taxes on the colonies in order to pay war debts from the Seven Years’ War. When colonists protested, the British sent their army to North America, eventually escalating the political turmoil into a full-blown revolution. The war concluded with thirteen independent colonies, forming the United States, free from British rule. Although the United States ended up becoming a Democracy, it must be noted that George Washington had the popularity and political influence to start his own monarchy and, in this sense, as much as the revolution was a cry for liberty, it may have very well also ended in a dictatorship. This was the outcome for many other revolutions supposedly rooted in liberal values like the Mexican Revolution and Simon Bolivar’s liberation of South America from Spain. Following the American Revolution, in other colonies, the British offered much greater autonomy to their subjects. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand were ruled liberally. In the 1850s, Australia and New Zealand were granted privileges of self-governance and The British North America Act of 1867 granted Canada self-governance and control over Canadian taxation. Compared to their administration of the original thirteen colonies, the British allowed these newer colonies much more freedom and autonomy and, eventually, these colonies bloomed into free independent democracies. The legacy of the British Empire and her settlements clearly establishes a framework for future interplanetary settlements. Excessive force must not be exercised as attempts to economically benefit and profit off these colonies against the will of the people inevitably result in political turmoil, as was the case in the American Revolution. Instead, a lenient approach to control will ensure that these new settlements become free democracies, without risking potential revolutions which rarely end with a liberal government in power. Not only would this approach be providing humanity with the most virtuous future possible, but the process of administering celestial colonies would also be simplified for the mother planet, Earth, as less costly oversight is necessary.
A New Space Race?... A Star War?
Another issue associated with the governance of new celestial colonies is geopolitical tensions between new settlements. While the United States currently leads the world in space, China, Russia, and India also hold aspirations for the stars. With China and Russia in particular being geopolitical opponents of the United States, it is possible that these tensions could spill beyond the atmosphere. A similar phenomenon occurred during the age of New Imperialism in the late 1800s in which European countries scrambled across the globe, competing for spheres of economic influence and the sake of their national pride. Africa was famously butchered between European powers in the scramble for Africa and around 85 percent of the globe had been split and divided between European powers. The Fashoda Incident almost instigated a war between Britain and France in Sudan and was sparked by a mutual economic interest in establishing control over the Suez Canal. The Italo-Turkish War involved Turkey and Italy competing for lands in North Africa and was a part of a nationalistic Italian effort to conquer former lands of the Roman Empire. The Anglo-Afghan Wars pitted Russia and Britain against each other for influence in Afghanistan, a valuable entry point to the wealthy Indian economy. And, it is in large part because of these heightened tensions between colonial powers that the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand tipped the scale ever so slightly to spark World War I, the deadliest conflict witnessed up to that point. Because of European empires’ nationalistic pride and desire to secure new markets, international tensions exploded and, as a result, millions died. To this end, it is important to delineate the mission to colonize the stars as a unified endeavour for the benefit of all humanity, free from the constraints of nationalistic pride or the pursuit of economic gain. Failure to accomplish this may not only ignite new conflicts on other planets but also exacerbate tensions on Earth, ultimately endangering the future of the human race.
“Universal”-isation
As interplanetary settlements develop, a phenomenon similar to globalisation will occur on a galactic level. Colonies will begin trading with others, and distinct cultures will arise amongst these isolated outposts of humanity, culturally diffusing across the galaxy through shared communication mediums. However, this globalisation-esque phenomenon will introduce new dilemmas humanity must face. Today, globalization has provided great benefits to the entire world in certain respects. International trade has decreased the cost of consumer products, the internet allows for academia all over the world to collaborate and share ideas, and the realization of global health and economic issues has incentivized charity to numerous countries in need. Yet simultaneously, international trade has cost the jobs of millions as labor is outsourced to developing countries with loose labor laws. For example, once thriving American cities like Buffalo and Detroit have been left dark shadows of their former selves as jobs in heavy industry were outsourced to developing Asian countries in the late 20th century. Automobile and steel factories along Lake Michigan stand abandoned, hallowed out and rusting away underneath somber gray skies. Additionally, in using developing countries for cheap labor costs, these manufacturers and nations are only given a greater incentive to not improve worker conditions. Another drawback of globalization is the rapid spread of misinformation and lies made possible by the interconnectedness of the internet. COVID-19 misinformation and anti-vaccine propaganda distributed through the internet have indirectly led to an uncountable number of lives lost.
Given these setbacks from globalisation, the “universal”-isation of the universe requires proper action and precautions to prevent the same mistakes from being repeated. Rather than relying on loosely regulated free markets to dictate the universal economy, the benefit of all of humanity should be prioritized. Labor regulations must be upheld and enforced uniformly throughout all human settlements to prevent the outsourcing of jobs to settlements with less restrictive labor laws, which mutually harms all workers involved. Additionally, the internet must also lose its libertarian leanings and be enforced in an authoritarian manner for the greater benefit of humanity. Active misinformation and disinformation would explode given the raw increase of internet users in a multiplanetary civilization and, to combat this, regulation is necessary to protect countless human lives. In summary, it is essential to abandon the notion that economic growth is the purpose for the creation of celestial settlements. The mission of making humanity interplanetary is critical to securing our collective future and demands a utilitarian approach. In this context, the greatest good for the greatest number is achieved through economic and communicative regulation.
A Crimson Future
The spacecraft hurdles itself into the Martian atmosphere. Heat builds up around the sturdy black heat tiles, engulfing the entire craft in a radiating explosion of colors: red, orange, blue, and purple. Suddenly, the windows clear up. Passengers look out to see a gleaming Martian metropolis casting its radiant light across the rust-colored, iron-rich soil of the red planet, with the towering Olympus Mons standing in the backdrop. Surrounding the city are miles upon miles of crop fields, slowly photosynthesizing the atmosphere’s carbon dioxide into breathable oxygen and glucose to feed the population. Imposing factories stand in the distance, filled with workers covered in soot and grime casting Martian steel with industrious spirit, proud to be contributing to the colony. And, throughout the city, thousands of children can be seen sitting at their little desks, learning the history of civilization. They are taught that throughout all of human history, exploration, settlement, and colonisation have been marred by greed, violence, destruction, bloodshed, and suffering. Yet, they learn of one remarkable exception: the settlement of the planets – their home. They hear how their ancestors sacrificed profit margins and their petty national rivalries in order to ensure civilization not only endures, but thrives with virtue and harmony. A shockwave ripples through the city, rattling the classroom window. The children turn to see a spacecraft, its engines firing with precision, lowering itself onto a landing pad. The ground trembles with the metallic clank of its landing. In that instant, humanity’s future shines even brighter.