Dark skies: space expansionism, planetary geopolitics, and the ends of humanity

'Dark Skies' provides a comprehensive and balanced assessment of the space enterprise, past, present and future. It demolishes widely-held optimistic assumptions about the desirability of many major space activities, actual and prospective. Most consequentially, the hiding-in-plain-sight use of outer space as a corridor for long-range bombardment has increased the probability of catastrophic nuclear war. Contrary to the widespread claim that sustainable colonies on other celestial bodies are necessary for human survival from large-scale disasters on Earth, this work shows that colonization itself poses many severe threats and should be avoided. Instead an Earth-oriented space program should be pursued.

Dark Skies provides the first comprehensive and balanced assessment of the space enterprise, past, present and future. It demolishes widely-held optimistic assumptions about the desirability of many major space activities, actual and prospective. Most consequentially, the hiding-in-plain-sight use of outer space as a corridor for long-range bombardment has increased the probability of catastrophic nuclear war. Contrary to the widespread claim that sustainable colonies on other celestial bodies are necessary for human survival from large-scale disasters on Earth, Dark Skies shows that colonization itself poses many severe threats and should be avoided. Instead an Earth-oriented space program should be pursued.