While it's easy to romanticize space as an escape to a pristine frontier where people will float weightlessly among the stars, it’s worth remembering there are no oceans or mountains or chirpy birds in space. It's “not nice up there,” said Rubenstein. “It is not nice at all."

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Space ethicist Mary-Jane Rubenstein raises concerns about the future of space commercialization, questioning worker protections when employees depend on employers for air and water in orbit, and challenging the legal framework that allows resource extraction from celestial bodies. She critiques the 2015 U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act and subsequent Artemis Accords as unilateral moves that sidestep the 1967 Outer Space Treaty's intent. Rubenstein advocates for UN-led international collaboration, including repealing the Wolf Amendment that restricts NASA cooperation with China, and suggests focusing on shared concerns like space debris as a starting point for ethical space development.

Who gets to inherit the stars? A space ethicist on what we’re not talking about