OFF EARTH

- Erika Nesvold -

With Musk making plans to settle Mars, it's time to think about the ethics of living in space.

Off-Earth is a great overview of some of the things we should be thinking about, like should we even settle other planets? Who is going to be the settlers? What kind of laws will we use? Equity? Customs and rules? So many things, big and small, to consider.

I picked up this book from my local library, I'm a sucker for the NEW RELEASE SCI-FI wall, and I slowly made my way through all the pages. It wasn't earth shattering, or even a book I'd say is required reading. But it made me start to think.

With all this hype about putting people on the Moon, maybe even Mars, I get excited. I picture Star Trek, and the countless Sci-Fi stories I've read. Astronauts floating in space, planting flags in craters, mining exotic minerals, etc.

But what about reality, the day to day functioning of space. Currently there is a very weak, vague, UN charter on Space. And, who really follows UN rules anyway? The only real rule seems to be that no country is allowed to claim a planet to themselves. Kind of like Antarctica here on Earth. But who is going to actually enforce this?

The book brings up many topics that one might not think about here on earth. Air, for instance. Who's in charge of air. What about homeless people? With such little space how do you deal with homelessness?

The big thing to me was who is going to be settling space? It seems like the Super-Duper-Rich are going to be the first people to get into space. How is that going to effect all future development?

See, a whole big bag of things to mull over.

It looks like space is the new wild west.