NASA’s In-Situ Resource Utilization: How Spacefaring Colonialism Risks Repeating Earth’s Extractive Past
Original framing: “Under the Microscope: NASA-made material for moon manufacturing” — Phys.org
The framing silences voices from the Global South, who argue that space resource exploitation could exacerbate Earth’s inequalities by concentrating wealth in the hands of a few. Scientists from marginalized regions, such as those in *Latin America* or *Africa*, often critique the Western-centric approach to space exploration, which prioritizes military and corporate interests over global equity. Additionally, workers in Earth’s extractive industries—such as miners in *Chile* or *DRC*—could face similar risks in off-world labor markets, yet their perspectives are excluded from the conversation.
NASA’s ISRU material innovation is not merely a technological achievement but a symptom of deeper systemic patterns: the repetition of Earth’s extractive colonialism in space, the erasure of Indigenous and marginalized voices, and the unchecked power of corporate and state actors to shape celestial futures.
The original framing obscures these realities by presenting space as a neutral arena for innovation, but historical precedents—from the *Doctrine of Discovery* to the *Enclosure Acts*—demonstrate how ‘progress’ often masks dispossession. Indigenous space ethics, cross-cultural wisdom, and trickster narratives all reveal the absurdity of treating celestial bodies as resources to be claimed, while future modeling warns of dystopian outcomes if unregulated extraction continues. The solution lies not in incremental reforms but in systemic shifts: establishing global commons governance, integrating Indigenous ethics into policy, and reimagining space economics through post-capitalist models. The moon and Mars are not blank slates for unchecked innovation—they are sites of cultural, ethical, and geopolitical contestation, and their futures must be shaped by collective, equitable, and ecologically conscious visions.