#23 Disgrace: Space Race 2
Who actually owns the sun, moon and stars? Allen. Space is considered a common human heritage. That’s what international law says. In recent years, however, the privatization and commercialization of space has progressed rapidly. A race for dominance in space has broken out high above our heads. Among other things, it’s about the development of the moon, Mars and asteroids as suppliers of valuable raw materials; it’s about power, money and megalomania: Elon Musk wants to colonize Mars, Jeff Bezos wants to settle millions of people in huge spaceships in the solar system. But are they allowed to do that? We speak to the international law expert Professor Dr. Isabel Feichtner on how the nation states of planet Earth are gradually undermining the Space Treaty by expanding their terrestrial competition, including capitalism, into space – with destructive consequences.
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Shownotes
Federal government’s space strategy, published by the Federal Ministry of Economics, September 2023.
Isabel Feichtner: Mineral resources. About exploitation and socialization. Hamburg Edition, 2025.
Antje Nötzold, Enrico Fels, Andrea Rotter, Moritz Brake (eds.): Strategic competition in space. Springer VS, 2024.
Jingle: Copyright Free Music inspired heavily by the Star Trek shows, by Louis Humanoide 2.
Excerpts from Picard in Star Trek, “First Contact”, 1996.
Enno Schöningh: Who owns the universe? The future of the Earth is increasingly being decided in space. That’s why we can’t leave it to the big powers. A guide to having a say, from July 12, 2025