Hello JustSpace friends and followers, and welcome to our first newsletter of 2024! We’ll take a look at the latest news in justice and space exploration, and recommend some of our favorite articles of the year so far.

Human Remains on the Moon

On January 8th, a rocket carrying the Peregrine lunar lander was launched. Built by the private space company Astrobotic, Peregrine was meant to reach the surface of the Moon on February 23, carrying a number of payloads including scientific instruments as well as privately purchased time capsules. Two of these capsules were sent by Celestis and Elysium Space, space burial companies that transport human remains.

This is not the first launch of human remains intended for the lunar surface: in 1998, the Lunar Prospector mission launched carrying a Celestis capsule containing the ashes of astronomer Gene Shoemaker. When the payload was announced after launch, the president of the Navajo Nation expressed dismay, noting that “it is sacrilegious, a gross insensitivity to the beliefs of Native Americans to place human remains on the Moon.” NASA issued an apology and committed to consult with Native American communities in the future if they ever made similar plans for future mission. But this promised consultation did not take place for the Peregrine mission. The Navajo Nation issued a letter calling for a delay of the launch, a call which was supported by the Coalition of Large Tribes, but NASA argued that their previous commitment did not apply because Peregrine was a private (though NASA-funded) mission. 

Ultimately, the Peregrine mission failed to reach the Moon, experiencing a propellent leak that resulted in an eventual re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere ten days after launch. But this issue will inevitably arise again, as private companies continue to send missions to the Moon. 

To learn more, we recommend Alvin Harvey’s recent article in Nature, “Stop sending human remains to the Moon,” and Hilding Neilson’s follow-up, “Celestial bodies as human burial sites? Indigenous Rights and Space.” Deana Weibel provided an anthropologist’s perspective in “The sacred Moon: Navigating diverse cultural beliefs in lunar missions,” and The Guardian recently published a piece exploring the threats that increased private missions pose to scientific sites on the Moon.

Space Happenings

In other space justice news, the U.S. National Labor Relations Board has issued a formal complaint against SpaceX on behalf of eight former employees who allege that they were fired for writing and circulating an open letter about CEO Elon Musk’s behavior.

And NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) announced layoffs of 8% of its workforce,including 530 employees and 40 contractors. As Casey Dreier explains for The Planetary Society, “people are losing their jobs because Congress is fighting over the budget of the Mars Sample Return (MSR) project.”

To Read

• As Jessica West wrote for The Ploughshares Monitor in Getting outer space diplomacy off the treadmill last December, our approach to space should be informed by the ethics of care: “Not only must actors avoid armed conflict and environmental destruction, but they must also work to preserve outer space as a secure environment for all peoples.”

• Alina Utrata asked What’s Wrong with Outer Space Colonialism?, arguing that “to call outer space an ‘empty frontier’ is… to already impose a territorial conceptualization of property onto that space—and to begin the process of colonialism.”

• The New York Times explored the challenges of performing astronomy in the era of satellite megaconstellations in How Astronomers Are Saving Astronomy From Satellites — For Now.

• Another recent New York Times article noted that The New Space Race Is Causing New Pollution Problems, specifically in upper levels of the Earth’s atmosphere.

• And even farther away from our planet’s surface, a New York Times guest essay, What We Do to the Moon Will Transform It Forever, argued that “we owe ourselves — and the moon itself — a more thoughtful consideration of what our planet’s only natural satellite represents,” especially as upcoming missions are poised to left permanent effects on the lunar surface.

To Watch

Speaking of satellite megaconstellations, Al Jazeera recently released a short documentary on YouTube called Fighting for Space: The Low Earth Satellite Race, which provides a nice overview of the various ethical and legal issues we’re facing with satellite technology in low Earth orbit.

Take Action

Scientists for Palestine’s call for a ceasefire in Gaza is still accepting signatures, as is the statement from Particles for Palestine, who are also asking for signatures (even from non-particle-physicists) on their call for a ceasefire and long-term humanitarian aid. On December 9, hundreds of scientists attended the International Convention Against War and Destructive Use of Science: Scientists Against Israeli Apartheid and Genocide in Gaza (which can be watched on YouTube), producing a “Declaration Against Genocide and in Support of Palestine”. The Declaration can be read and endorsed on their website.

The JustSpace Alliance is hosting an Environmental Justice in Space (EJiS) Workshop on June 21-22, 2024. The EJiS Workshop will bring space experts together with environmental justice activists and researchers to discuss areas of concern in the space environment, lessons learned from the history of environmental justice movements on Earth, and ideas for ensuring an equitable and sustainable future for humanity in space. Registration for this free virtual workshop is now open.

We also invite you to apply to join the JustSpace Alliance at bit.ly/JustSpaceApply! Members have access to our virtual community spaces, and in the future, we’ll be able to offer in-person gatherings, more podcast and video content, writing, and more. Supporting JustSpace will help us reach our mission goals by allowing us to compensate people for their time and labor for our future projects, as well as help us cover basic costs like maintaining our website, etc. You can find more information at bit.ly/JustSpaceMemberFAQ.