Space Alert! Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space Winter/Spring 2021 [email protected] • www.space4peace.org • (207) 389-4606 Newsletter #40 Elon Musk (Space X) has gone nuts by Bruce K. Gagnon the general assembly accepted in 1962. Elon Musk, and his company Space The treaty has several major points X, has a plan to take control of Mars. to it. Some of the key ones are: They want to ‘Terraform’ the dusty red • Space is free for all nations to planet to make it green and livable like explore, and sovereign claims cannot our Mother Earth. be made. Space activities must be for The first time I can recall hearing the benefit of all nations and humans. about Terraforming Mars was years ago (So, nobody owns the moon or other while on a speaking tour in Southern planetary bodies.) California. I picked up a copy of the • Nuclear weapons and other weap- LA Times and read an article about ons of mass destruction are not allowed the Mars Society, which has dreams in Earth orbit, on celestial bodies or in of moving our human civilization to other outer-space locations. (In other this faraway planet. The article quoted words, peace is the only acceptable use Mars Society President Robert Zubrin of outer-space locations). • Individual nations (states) are re- (a Lockheed Martin executive), who sponsible for any damage their space called the Earth “a rotting, dying, stink- objects cause. Individual nations are ing planet” and made a case for the also responsible for all governmental transformation of Mars. and nongovernmental activities con- Imagine the cost. Why not instead ducted by their citizens. These states spend money to heal our lush, beauti- must also “avoid harmful contamina- ful, colorful home? What about the SpaceX is selling T-shirts emblazoned with the words “Occupy Mars” and “Nuke tion” due to space activities. ethical considerations of humans de- M a r s .” Even NASA, which has been send- ciding that another planet ought to be with other cultures and civilizations. As Business Insider explains, Musk “has ing probes to Mars for many years, has transformed for our ‘use’? What about In other words ‘Do no harm’. championed the idea of launching nuclear stated that Terraforming Mars is not the legal implications as the UN’s Outer But Elon Musk wants to do big harm weapons just over Mars’ poles since 2015. possible. (NASA is most interested in Space Treaty forbids such egotistical to Mars and whatever elemental life He believes it will help warm the planet mining operations on the Red Planet.) domination plans? that might exist there. and make it more hospitable for human Their web site states: I am immediately reminded of the In an article recently posted on Coun- life.” Science fiction writers have long fea- TV Star Trek show ‘Prime Directive’. terPunch, journalism professor Karl As space.com says: “The explosions tured terraforming, the process of creating The Prime Directive, also known as Grossman writes: would vaporize a fair chunk of Mars’ ice an Earth-like or habitable environment on Starfleet General Order 1, the Non-In- “Elon Musk, founder and CEO of caps, liberating enough water vapor and another planet, in their stories. Scientists terference Directive, was the embodi- Space X, has been touting the detonation carbon dioxide—both potent greenhouse themselves have proposed terraforming to ment of one of Starfleet’s most impor- of nuclear bombs on Mars to, he says, gases—to warm up the planet substan- enable the long-term colonization of Mars. “transform it into an Earth-like planet.” tially, the idea goes.” tant ethical principles: noninterference A solution common to both groups is to It’s been projected that it would take release carbon dioxide gas trapped in the more than 10,000 nuclear bombs to Martian surface to thicken the atmosphere Global Network NONPROFIT ORG carry out the Musk plan. The nuclear and act as a blanket to warm the planet. PO Box 652 US POSTAGE bomb explosions would also render However, Mars does not retain enough Brunswick, ME 04011 PAID Mars radioactive. The nuclear bombs PERMIT 56 carbon dioxide that could practically be LEWISTON, ME would be carried to Mars on the fleet put back into the atmosphere to warm of 1,000 Starships that Musk wants Mars, according to a new NASA-spon- to build—like the one that blew up sored study. Transforming the inhospi- recently. table Martian environment into a place The fundamental UN treaty relating astronauts could explore without life to these questions is the Treaty on Prin- support is not possible without technology ciples Governing the Activities of States well beyond today’s capabilities. in the Exploration and Use of Outer In the end, Musk’s call to ‘Occupy’ Space, including the Moon and Other and ‘Nuke’ Mars could easily be de- Celestial Bodies, or simply the “Outer scribed as typical ‘American exception- Space Treaty.” It was ratified in 1967, largely based on a set of legal principles (See Musk P #6. ) 2 Space Alert! Winter/Spring 2021 Challenge the global space control doctrine by Bruce K. Gagnon American citizen $600 to help them through Let me first say happy New Year to all who what has become the worst economic crisis read these words. 2020 was a terribly challeng- since the Great Depression. How politicians ing time for most people around the globe. It think families are going to survive that are is safe to say that we all wish for a better and behind in paying bills, out-of-work, without safer 2021. healthcare, and not able to feed their families Here in the U.S. we’ve just witnessed the is beyond me. At the same time the Congress brutal transition of power from Trump to made sure to protect the interests of the mili- Biden. The ill-fated last minute Trump coup tary industrial complex by handing them an- attempt, and heightened racial tensions during other record-breaking appropriation for 2021. the past four years, signal difficult times ahead. The corporate lockdown of the Congress is Sadly with the current Wall Street and military complete. Italy’s WW II fascist leader Benito industrial complex control of Congress it ap- Mussolini defined fascism as the “the merging pears that real change in America will take ex- of the state and corporate power”. Isn’t that traordinarily determined organizing and much what we have today in the U.S. and much of national healing. the capitalist world? We must honestly remember a few things I believe the first thing to do is to acknowl- about Joe Biden. He was a huge promoter of edge our predicament and stop believing George W. Bush’s illegal and immoral 2003 that the Democrats (or any other corporate ‘shock and awe’ attack and occupation of Iraq. Watch this closely with a critical eye.) The Russians controlled ‘liberal’ party) will rescue us. I re- The 1994 “tough on crime” law authored by Biden, have offered to sweeten the pot by saying their new mind you that when Trump got the new ‘Space Force’ and signed by President Bill Clinton, was one of the hypersonic missiles are negotiable. approved in Congress the only thing the Democrats key contributors to mass incarceration. Biden has During this past year we’ve been witnessing a vir- demanded was to call it the ‘Space Corp’. long wished to cut Social Security and other social tual explosion of plans to construct new ‘spaceports’ This same story is being played out all over the spending in order to ‘upgrade’ the Pentagon’s capa- at various locations around the world. Proposals have ‘NATO-led’ world. Japan, South Korea, Italy, France, bility to wage endless war. And finally, Biden was in included building them in Scotland, Hawaii, Maine, Germany, Australia, UK, Sweden, Brazil and others charge of the illegal U.S. orchestrated coup d’état in Japan and beyond. Some are still in the works and are clamping down on economic justice and civil lib- Ukraine in 2014 that installed a neo-Nazi regime. others have been put on the shelf for now. Space X erties and their so-called ‘liberal’ opposition parties Covid has changed our work this year in the Global and other corporate-owned launch companies are are sitting on their hands. Corporate globalization Network. We were not able to hold our planned an- scanning the globe for launch sites as the ‘need’ for is consolidating power and pushing out opposition nual space conference in Canada last spring (which tens of thousands of mini-satellites for 5G are mak- voices. was going to be folded into a larger peace coalition ing the aerospace industry drool as they envision The preparation for war with Russia and China by conference). The same conference will be held this the money that can be made hoisting them into the a steroidal NATO needs to be vigorously denounced June 4-5 on Zoom with the GN fully participat- heavens. and protested as often as possible. Movements in ing. Then our Keep Space for Peace Week plans in A couple big problems immediately come to mind NATO-member nations must oppose funding in- October were impacted as most local groups were when I think of thousands of mini-satellite launches. creases for the out-of-control military arm of corpo- under lock down. Instead of the usual public events One would be the toxic rocket exhaust punching rate capital which aims to move into the Pacific as a on the street, we organized a well-attended webinar a hole in the Earth’s ozone layer thus making our global military alliance.