Rethinking Space Exploration: Ethical Stewardship and Indigenous Perspectives

The recent crash of an abandoned SpaceX rocket booster on the Moon offers an unexpected opportunity for planetary science. Scientists will learn more about high-speed impacts on the lunar surface. However, this incident also raises concerns about how we treat extraterrestrial environments.

Humanity has placed man-made objects on the Moon since the late 1950s. But the current impact highlights a parallel between language used in space exploration and the logic used in dispossessing Indigenous lands on Earth. This connects to settler colonialism and the concept of terra nullius, where land is considered unclaimed and open for taking.

Extraterrestrial space often resembles this mindset, seen as an uncharted frontier. State and corporate entities frequently leave behind debris like flags, sensors, and rocket boosters. As space exploration shifts to private billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, space becomes a playground for the wealthy, where rules are often ignored. Unlike state actors, private entities may not follow strict regulations, treating space as an experimental ground.

The Moon lacks human presence, but we still hold an ethical responsibility in space. As an Ojibwe scholar in environmental governance, I see the Moon as more than an empty rock. It’s a relational presence. This perspective is shared among Indigenous communities, who often oppose unethical space activities, such as commercial lunar burials or using the Moon for hazardous waste disposal.

Indigenous nations advocate against viewing the Moon as a blank slate. They argue for viewing it as a relative. Dismissing these objections as “anti-science” misrepresents the narrative. Partnerships like those between NASA and the Navajo Nation show that combining Indigenous knowledge with science is possible.

The core problem isn’t space exploration itself but our approach to it. We learn nothing from crashing boosters into the Moon that thousands of natural meteorite impacts don’t already demonstrate without adding more space debris.

As we face Earth’s environmental crises, our interactions with space require consideration. Transplanting Earth’s environmental issues to the Moon doesn’t advance knowledge. It amplifies environmental harm into a new domain. Space exploration must involve international accountability and ethical care.

We cannot allow corporate elites to dictate cosmic governance. Progress in space exploration means including marginalized voices, such as Indigenous communities and those from the Global South. Everyone shares in the responsibility to preserve space through stewardship.

Niiyokamigaabaw Deondre Smiles is an incoming Assistant Professor of Indigenous Studies at Bemidji State University (Bemidji, Minnesota). A citizen of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, their work focuses on Indigenous lenses of human-environment interactions, political ecology, Indigenous geographies of outer space, and community-engaged scholarship.

They have authored several pieces on colonialism and space, including a 2020 essay in Society+Space, and a chapter in the recent Routledge Handbook of Outer Space Studies. The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.