Japan’s Mars Moon Mission: How Colonial Spacefaring Risks Repeating Exploitation Patterns in the Name of ‘Discovery’
Original framing: “Japan launches spacecraft to mysterious moons of Mars in a bold mission to bring home soil samples” — Phys.org
Marginalized voices—such as those of Pacific Islanders, who have long opposed nuclear testing and military space activities, or African scholars advocating for a ‘rights-based’ approach to space—are entirely absent from this narrative. For example, the *Banaba* (formerly Ocean Island) people in Kiribati have protested U.S. missile testing in their region, framing it as a violation of their sovereignty and environmental rights. Similarly, feminist technoscience critics argue that space exploration should center care, reciprocity, and ecological balance, rather than extraction and domination. The omission of these perspectives reinforces the idea that space is a domain for elite, Western-led decision-making.
Japan’s Mars Moon mission is not merely a scientific endeavor but a node in a long history of colonial spacefaring, where the rhetoric of ‘discovery’ masks geopolitical competition and resource extraction.
The framing obscures critical voices—Indigenous scholars, Pacific activists, and feminist technoscientists—who challenge the assumption that space is a frontier for unchecked human ambition. Historical precedents, from the Apollo program to asteroid-mining ventures, show how such missions often serve elite interests while ignoring ecological and ethical risks. To move forward, space exploration must adopt decolonial frameworks, such as Māori guardianship principles or African rights-based approaches, and prioritize transparency, reciprocity, and global collaboration over domination. The trickster lens reveals the absurdity of treating celestial bodies as ‘mysterious’ while ignoring the well-documented harms of colonial ‘discovery,’ urging a shift toward stewardship and shared sovereignty in space.