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‘Not using such US-centric and colonisation/genocide-invoking historical metaphors would be a better start,’ British scholar says

President Donald Trump’s plan to pursue “Manifest Destiny” by putting the first person on Mars has drawn mixed reactions from astronomers, with one expressing concerns about “imperialist connotations.”

However, others are more enthusiastic about the administration’s aims.

In his inauguration speech, President Trump proclaimed, “We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.”

In the crowd, Elon Musk, owner of SpaceX and a longtime proponent of Mars exploration, could be seen excitedly giving a “thumbs up” to the camera in response to this statement.

SpaceX is one of NASA’s largest contractors and has sent several unmanned spacecraft to Mars already. Musk has said he hopes to have humans on Mars by 2028, before Trump leaves office.

However, some astronomers are not as equally enthused about the prospect of Mars colonization.

Bleddyn Bowen, an associate professor in astropolitics and space warfare and co-director of the Space Research Centre at Durham University in England, told The College Fix the focus on Mars by the new administration is not the best use of time or resources.

“I’d be concerned that yet another shift of focus to Mars, away from the Moon as the Obama administration did in 2009, would distract attention from the Artemis Programme which is well underway and has enjoyed significant buy-in from many countries around the world for lunar exploration,” he said in a recent email to The Fix.

The Artemis Program is a NASA initiative aimed to “land the first woman and the first person of color” on the moon; it is meant to be a stepping stone to landing on Mars.

Bowen said a shift away from the project would make “the U.S. a more difficult partner to work with on the international dimension in terms of human spaceflight where the whims of Presidents and advisors can derail years of planning and financial-industrial commitments.”

Jacob Haqq-Misra, an astrobiologist at the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science in Seattle, has a somewhat different take.

“We are in the midst of a ‘new Cold War’ in which countries with nuclear weapons continue to compete with one another,” Haqq-Misra responded in an email to The Fix.

“But instead of actually demonstrating the superiority of their nuclear weapons, countries like the United States, China, Russia, and India all use space as an arena for demonstrating the sophistication of their rocketry technology,” he said.

Author of the book “Sovereign Mars: Transforming our values through space settlement” he said space exploration gives countries like the U.S. an opportunity to practice and demonstrate nuclear power.

“The same technology that can deliver rovers or humans to Mars could conceivably be used to launch nuclear weapons with increasing precision,” he told The Fix.

MORE: Astrobiologists concerned about imperialistic consequences of space exploration

“Given this reality,” Haqq-Misra said, “I think that striving for ambitious goals like sending humans to Mars is an excellent way to continue developing this technological capacity for ensuring our national security while simultaneously being able to advance our scientific understanding of Mars.”

When asked about Trump’s use of the term, “manifest destiny,” Bowen had this to say:

“Many, inside and outside the United States, are uncomfortable or deeply hurt by the imperialist connotations of the term, which refers to a traumatic period of history where indigenous peoples and the working class across the Americas were subjected to deliberate policies of dispossession, forced migration, genocide, or brutal exploitation at the hands of governments and private companies as the natural environment and ecosystems were ravaged by industrialisation.”

There are others who share Bowen’s concerns about space exploration. For example, Wesleyan University Dean of Social Sciences Mary-Jane Rubenstein once said that “European Christian imperialism” could be part of man’s expansion into space, as The Fix previously reported.

Rubenstein initially responded to an email from The Fix asking about Trump’s statement, but did not reply to its questions or a follow up email asking what practices she believes are and are not acceptable in space exploration.

However, Haqq-Misra does not share their concerns.

“I am not concerned that Mars exploration will mirror European colonialism,” Haqq-Misra told The Fix. “Article II of the Outer Space Treaty prohibits the sovereign appropriation of outer space, so it is unlikely that part or all of Mars will ever be claimed as a new state or territory of the United States, or any other country that reaches Mars.”

The Outer Space Treaty is a United Nations agreement regarding norms and regulations around space exploration.

Noting the difficulty inherent in space exploration, Haqq-Misra said, “If any country reaches the point of establishing a permanent human presence on Mars, then it will likely teach us more about our own preconceptions and limitations about our current models of civilization on Earth and inspire us to develop new approaches to civilization that can cope with the harsh realities of living in space.”

Bowen said he is open to space exploration, provided the astronomy community alters the language surrounding it.

“Not using such US-centric and colonisation/genocide-invoking historical metaphors would be a better start if the US wanted to make its space exploration plans more palatable for more audiences,” he said.

“You can talk about exploration and discovery without invoking empires and colonialism,” he told The Fix.

However, his recommended terminology could be at odds with others in the astronomy community.

Theoretical physicist and gender theorist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein once told Gizmodo, “I want us to move away from the idea of ‘exploration’ and ‘discovery,’” as she considers them to be “deeply fraught terms that have traditionally referred to problematic behaviors by imperialists.”

Prescod-Weinstein, a professor at the University of New Hampshire, did not respond to The Fix‘s request for comment via email on Trump’s statement.

MORE: Black physicist canceled for challenging ‘homophobic’ NASA telescope

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