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Ground Control: An Argument for the End of Human Space Exploration
In the 1960s and ’70s, America spent $20 billion dollars (around $150 billion in today's dollars) to land humans on the moon, and “win” the Cold War. And while man took his first steps on an extraterrestrial landscape, protests at Cape Canaveral Why waste money on space when there are so many issues here on Earth?
Fifty-one years later, an oligopoly of commercial space companies—SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic—has begun sending civilians into space. These civilians are the first generation of what will undoubtedly be an extensive family of space tourists. Commercial space companies aim to expand access to space, find new sources of energy, mine outer space resources, and conquer extraterrestrial lands. But their goals remain that of a capitalist and imperialist class, intent on new frontier profiteering.
Ground Control uses cultural anthropology to trace the trajectory of the commercial space industry as it faces the social, political, and economic repercussions of commercial space ventures head on. Drawing on the author’s research at Spaceport America and work in the commercial space industry, it offers an insider’s glimpse of the side of human space exploration not often put on display.
In doing so, it holds the space industry accountable for its actions by asking the same questions that counterculture leaders asked in the 1960 Should we go? Is it worth it—socially, politically, and economically—to send humans to space? What cultural outcomes will result from continued human space exploration and the colonization of other worlds? And lastly, what can we learn about our present selves by studying our most extreme visions of the future?
Fifty-one years later, an oligopoly of commercial space companies—SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic—has begun sending civilians into space. These civilians are the first generation of what will undoubtedly be an extensive family of space tourists. Commercial space companies aim to expand access to space, find new sources of energy, mine outer space resources, and conquer extraterrestrial lands. But their goals remain that of a capitalist and imperialist class, intent on new frontier profiteering.
Ground Control uses cultural anthropology to trace the trajectory of the commercial space industry as it faces the social, political, and economic repercussions of commercial space ventures head on. Drawing on the author’s research at Spaceport America and work in the commercial space industry, it offers an insider’s glimpse of the side of human space exploration not often put on display.
In doing so, it holds the space industry accountable for its actions by asking the same questions that counterculture leaders asked in the 1960 Should we go? Is it worth it—socially, politically, and economically—to send humans to space? What cultural outcomes will result from continued human space exploration and the colonization of other worlds? And lastly, what can we learn about our present selves by studying our most extreme visions of the future?
- GenresNonfictionScienceTravel
224 pages, Hardcover
Published July 16, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
April 24, 2025
I actually agree with a lot of the arguments made in this book but they are so poorly substantiated and inexplicably mixed with a memoir of someone who hasn’t done very much yet that I was quite disappointed. I think they will probably write something very interesting in 15-20 years’ time but this definitely isn’t it.
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November 2, 2024The author makes a lot of great points, some of which I had never considered before. I think this is an important conversation for people in the meche/aerospace fields to have. However, I felt like the book was too long for the argument it presented. It felt padded by memoiristic details that (in my opinion) detracted from the argument. Maybe I've been brainrotted by 5.5 years surrounded by conservative-leaning engineering bros and their middle aged counterparts, but I think some of the personal details in this book were unnecessary and stereotyped the author as someone that people in the meche/aerospace industry might not take seriously (speaking as someone often not taken seriously). I was hoping to find a thought-provoking book I could recommend to my professors and peers, but I think this book would be better received by anthropologists than engineers.
May 15, 2024
I am incredibly excited for the release of this book in July! What a wonderful and eye opening concept by a phenomenal writer! I can’t wait to see what she publishes next!
February 25, 2026
(in Obi-Wan voice): [anguished, to Savannah Mandel] "You were the chosen one! It was said that you would *destroy* the [argument for human space exploration], not [enable them by writing a bad book]! Bring balance to the [discourse], not leave it in darkness!"
This book was a profound disappointment.
I read this book because Mandel gave an interview with the New Books Network a little bit ago about this book, and the title was so provocative that I felt I had to listen to it. I enjoyed the episode, and so I decided to read the book.
I'm upset I did because it wasn't that good, and frankly I think this book does *damage* to the argument its (kinda) making - which is one people should take seriously!
This book is sub-titled "An Argument for the End of Human Space Exploration". What it really is, though, is a memoir / reflection on Mandel's career following the private and public human space exploration industry, and how incredibly problematic, colonial, nationalistic, and wasteful it is. She spends significant chunks of this book waxing about her life goals, interactions with folks, and random stories about the world she got to bop around in for years. While she came into it believing that human space exploration is an intrinsic good, she came away from it greatly disillusioned from it and convinced its a general net negative.
While it's interesting to see these little anecdotes, and while I don't particularly care for her random opines on the relative safety of her AirBnB or commute, this book fails to advance a serious, clear, argument. And this is greatly upsetting, because in many ways, I actually *agree* with Mandel about the deep problems with the domestic human space exploration industry and what we should be directing resources to instead! But the problem is, if your provocatively titled book fails to actually deliver its argument, you risk actually doing more harm than good, by exposing your audience to this challenging idea, and then failing to deliver, making them double down on the problematic premise society reinforces. You basically do a "White Fragility" - challenge people in a bad way, piss them off, and actually reinforce their negative priors.
Because I actually agree with the general idea Mandel is trying to communicate (which is for some reason very diffusely argued here) I will endeavor to steelman her argument here.
Human space exploration, from the Moon landings, to the ISS, to proposed Moon bases/ human expedition to Mars, is deeply embedded in a long tradition of militarism, settler-colonialism, and nationalism. This was core to the fixation with getting to the Moon, and with the obsession by folks like Elon Musk today with getting to Mars. There are also a lot of ultra-powerful extractive industries that view space as a "frontier" in a colonial-capitalist lens - they wish to mine places like asteroids and the Moon for raw materials, and view private human space exploration as part of their elite right to domination. Human space exploration is a costly endeavor, has a long history of exploiting poor, Indigenous communities for their land to build launch bases, and ultimately does little to directly advance the needs of all mankind. This is not a new argument - folks made this exact argument in the 60s and 70s against the Apollo missions, critiquing the nationalistic dimension of space exploration and the significant amounts of dollars expended on it that could have been spent on social programs. Today, we have huge needs for climate investment that is actively being curtailed by the Trump Admin at the behest of billionaires like Bezos and Musk in favor of this pipedream of sending people to Mars because Earth is "doomed". While there is still an intellectual value in unmanned space exploration (in fact, significantly more, because of how much more cost-effective it is), human space exploration rightfully deserved to be critiqued as something that should be deprioritized in favor of trying to save all of humanity from climate collapse.
TLDR: Whitey on the Moon, but add a few verses about climate change
I think there's a genuinely valuable point worth reckoning with there! I think there's also a very valuable retort that could have been taken seriously that said investments (historically or proposed for the future) pale in comparison to things like prison, police, and military spending, which make up significantly more budget and cause significantly greater harm. The military particularly, from an environmental lens. There is also the retort that some scholars have made that the Apollo program didn't harm Great Society programs (Medicare/Medicaid, Pell Grants, Model Cities programs, etc)- it was actually part of *why* they passed. That Southern Democrats were only willing to approve these expansions of the social welfare state because of the pork barrel spending associated with NASA (hence why many NASA centers are in the South) and the nationalistic pride associated with winning the Space Race.
But unfortunately, this book doesn't grapple with any of that, because it's too busy telling us about the time Mandel got stuck in a London tube station because of a Kurdish independence protest. A damn shame.
This book was a profound disappointment.
I read this book because Mandel gave an interview with the New Books Network a little bit ago about this book, and the title was so provocative that I felt I had to listen to it. I enjoyed the episode, and so I decided to read the book.
I'm upset I did because it wasn't that good, and frankly I think this book does *damage* to the argument its (kinda) making - which is one people should take seriously!
This book is sub-titled "An Argument for the End of Human Space Exploration". What it really is, though, is a memoir / reflection on Mandel's career following the private and public human space exploration industry, and how incredibly problematic, colonial, nationalistic, and wasteful it is. She spends significant chunks of this book waxing about her life goals, interactions with folks, and random stories about the world she got to bop around in for years. While she came into it believing that human space exploration is an intrinsic good, she came away from it greatly disillusioned from it and convinced its a general net negative.
While it's interesting to see these little anecdotes, and while I don't particularly care for her random opines on the relative safety of her AirBnB or commute, this book fails to advance a serious, clear, argument. And this is greatly upsetting, because in many ways, I actually *agree* with Mandel about the deep problems with the domestic human space exploration industry and what we should be directing resources to instead! But the problem is, if your provocatively titled book fails to actually deliver its argument, you risk actually doing more harm than good, by exposing your audience to this challenging idea, and then failing to deliver, making them double down on the problematic premise society reinforces. You basically do a "White Fragility" - challenge people in a bad way, piss them off, and actually reinforce their negative priors.
Because I actually agree with the general idea Mandel is trying to communicate (which is for some reason very diffusely argued here) I will endeavor to steelman her argument here.
Human space exploration, from the Moon landings, to the ISS, to proposed Moon bases/ human expedition to Mars, is deeply embedded in a long tradition of militarism, settler-colonialism, and nationalism. This was core to the fixation with getting to the Moon, and with the obsession by folks like Elon Musk today with getting to Mars. There are also a lot of ultra-powerful extractive industries that view space as a "frontier" in a colonial-capitalist lens - they wish to mine places like asteroids and the Moon for raw materials, and view private human space exploration as part of their elite right to domination. Human space exploration is a costly endeavor, has a long history of exploiting poor, Indigenous communities for their land to build launch bases, and ultimately does little to directly advance the needs of all mankind. This is not a new argument - folks made this exact argument in the 60s and 70s against the Apollo missions, critiquing the nationalistic dimension of space exploration and the significant amounts of dollars expended on it that could have been spent on social programs. Today, we have huge needs for climate investment that is actively being curtailed by the Trump Admin at the behest of billionaires like Bezos and Musk in favor of this pipedream of sending people to Mars because Earth is "doomed". While there is still an intellectual value in unmanned space exploration (in fact, significantly more, because of how much more cost-effective it is), human space exploration rightfully deserved to be critiqued as something that should be deprioritized in favor of trying to save all of humanity from climate collapse.
TLDR: Whitey on the Moon, but add a few verses about climate change
I think there's a genuinely valuable point worth reckoning with there! I think there's also a very valuable retort that could have been taken seriously that said investments (historically or proposed for the future) pale in comparison to things like prison, police, and military spending, which make up significantly more budget and cause significantly greater harm. The military particularly, from an environmental lens. There is also the retort that some scholars have made that the Apollo program didn't harm Great Society programs (Medicare/Medicaid, Pell Grants, Model Cities programs, etc)- it was actually part of *why* they passed. That Southern Democrats were only willing to approve these expansions of the social welfare state because of the pork barrel spending associated with NASA (hence why many NASA centers are in the South) and the nationalistic pride associated with winning the Space Race.
But unfortunately, this book doesn't grapple with any of that, because it's too busy telling us about the time Mandel got stuck in a London tube station because of a Kurdish independence protest. A damn shame.
February 9, 2025
If half stars existed I'd probably rate this book 3.5 stars. Just a reflection mostly of how much I liked the book itself. Points were made and taken regarding equity and decolonization, capitalistic intentions and nationalistic bents. I agree, but my take on this was missing. Ain't gonna happen folks. Colonizing space or looking for a new home out there won't happen for several reasons. Mostly we are not physically built for such an environment, and there is no where to go. This is it. We have no other home wherein we can long survive the rigors of time, long distance travel, or the or the highly harmful effects on our bodies. Who would go? Where? for how long? and How?! On the other hand, Robotics and probes are perfectly suited for such things. They are also cheaper and easier to send anywhere for any length of time. Think Voyager I and II. Plus they keep our intentions honest. They gather data, photos, collect samples, all of which we can analyze and learn about the universe and our place in it. This is what we should be doing. We are the eyes, the ears, and the consciousness of the universe. There is no plan B. Lets fix what we have here... and explore.
August 30, 2024
What an interesting read! I didn't know what to expect when I began the book, but what I found was an incredibly well-constructed argument. One does not have to agree with all the points, but they're all laid out solidly. I went into this read under the notion of, 'what on earth (pun intended) could be wrong with space travel?' Well, it takes an insider's perspective to break that down and fully support such points for or against. This read is what I love to call 'mind candy.' I'm glad I read it and it definitely opened up my mind and to question what our priorities truly should be. Excellent and truly well constructed!
March 22, 2026
I don't think reading the book provides more info than the synopsis, which I think is a bad case of mismarketing. Rather than using "cultural anthropology to trace the trajectory of the commercial space industry,” the book reads as a memoir of a privileged 20-something year old finding her career path. In fact, the trajectory of space exploration is barely discussed and the arguments for or against it are lacking in breadth and detail. The book does a lot of “anthropology can be used to answer this question” but then never actually discusses the answer.
May 9, 2024
In life there are few times when you feel that someone owes you. Having read the beginning of this book I'm going to send Ms.Mandel a bill for 4hrs @500=$2000.
After doing a little digging I found that the "publisher" of this book is what we used to call a "Vanity Press". In other words Mandel PAID some one to publish this book.
None of this explains why anyone would want to waste their time with it. I'll bet that her mother didn't read it.
After doing a little digging I found that the "publisher" of this book is what we used to call a "Vanity Press". In other words Mandel PAID some one to publish this book.
None of this explains why anyone would want to waste their time with it. I'll bet that her mother didn't read it.
July 17, 2024
Truly excited to read the arguments laid out in this book to decide if I agree or disagree with the supposed end of human space exploration. Agree to disagree on some of the arguments but nonetheless a great read to dive into if you are at all in tune with space travel and how/where we intend to go as a species.
May 17, 2024
I can’t wait for this book to come out! This book should be on every syllabus, recommendation, and want to read list! It is clear that the author has truly spent the time, effort, and research to create a great book. I look forward to reading it :)
May 15, 2024
Great work that pushes people to look at space exploration a different way. Recommend you read it when it comes out and decide for yourselves which side of this debate you come down on.
November 24, 2025
One of the worst books that I've ever read. There is no substantial argument against space exploration. This book is really an account of the author's very mediocre career in anthropology.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews