Gerhard’s Reviews > Reclaiming Space: Progressive and Multicultural Visions of Space Exploration > Status Update
Gerhard
is 40% done
Humans have entered space without healing themselves here on Earth. These humans are carrying trauma that informs their perspective and ultimately their actions, which are affecting the rhythm of the entire universe. Probably most disturbing is that our space exploration is being planned and carried out by white, cis, heterosexual-presenting, wealthy men who seem to be borrowing from the colonial playbook.
— Sep 16, 2026 04:23AM
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Gerhard’s Previous Updates
Gerhard
is 80% done
Some Indigenous cultures have traditions of viewing landscapes and humans as a cooperative whole, a relationship where the line distinguishing human and landscape is blurred. They tend to be more holistic as opposed to the West’s predominantly mechanistic and materialistic associations with the land and its characteristics.
— Sep 16, 2026 04:22PM
Gerhard
is 70% done
So now that resource extraction capabilities are beginning to dawn on us, who owns the Moon? By international space law standards, it would be no one in particular and everyone at large. After all, the Outer Space Treaty designates outer space resources as the “province of all mankind.”
— Sep 16, 2026 04:11PM
Gerhard
is 60% done
In 2012, NASA astronaut Don Pettit took unpaired knitting needles manufactured from different polymers in his personal crew preference kit to the ISS. The intention was to demonstrate the behavior of water drops when the needles were charged, to make an educational video. Nonetheless, the presence of knitting needles in space caused delighted reactions from knitters and crafters on Earth...
— Sep 16, 2026 07:22AM
Gerhard
is 50% done
Finally, space holds the promise of vast, untapped profits for private spaceflight and space mining companies. This potential for wealth increases both the motivation for and the ability of spaceflight companies to evade regulations, ignore safety concerns, and exploit workers in pursuit of a fortune for their shareholders.
— Sep 16, 2026 07:19AM
Gerhard
is 31% done
And, of course, decolonizing space cannot happen without decolonizing Earth. Speculative fiction’s potential role is to enable us to imagine these possibilities through story, the oldest means of communicating across generations and peoples.
— Sep 16, 2026 03:47AM
Gerhard
is 20% done
Those of us who cannot afford the extremely expensive ticket to travel into space can still ride along by watching our screens back on Earth. This is often how many space projects are sold, whether they be short-term or long-term, or privately or publicly funded: all people participate in space exploration because its pursuit can be seen by all...
— Sep 16, 2026 03:03AM
Gerhard
is 10% done
The space exploration status quo is decidedly W.E.I.R.D. (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic), male, white, politically libertarian, and nondisabled.
— Sep 16, 2026 01:39AM