A Deeper Outlook on Space Missions Gets Us Back to the Land
On the surface, Earth’s ecology and space exploration appear to be opposed. While billionaires like Musk race to colonize other planets, here on Earth, we continue to exploit our natural resources. Space programs often seem like a grand display of technological optimism.
Yet, the irony is that our ambitions to live on other planets could be the very thing that saves our own. As we grapple with the challenges of creating self-sufficient extraterrestrial habitats, we’re forced to confront the fragility of Earth’s ecosystems and the importance of preserving them.
About a year ago, I delved into the biography of John P. Allen, the leading creator of the rather famous Biosphere 2 project (constructed between 1987 and 1991) designed to prepare for creating atmospheres on other planets. It turned out that, before that, in 1969, Allen founded Synergia Ranch, which still operates today as an environment that supports creative individuals in the fields of ecology, biospherics, engineering, architecture, and more. Wikipedia characterizes this ranch as an ecovillage.
This year, I visited a mountain in southern Serbia where Alex Ananin and Dina Gut are preparing a center for the rehabilitation and training of astronauts (including for settling other planets — yes, they’re planning a multi-generational project). Through conversations with them, I gained a deeper understanding of how the preparation for space programs (especially bases on other planets) is reviving interest in both natural ecosystems as a whole and in a minimalist, optimal, and yet healthy lifestyle here on Earth.
Dina (a specialist in space medicine) wrote an article for SpaceWatch.Global titled The Future of Living: Earthly Lessons for Martian Homes, where she describes how we can design homes for rural areas now, taking into account knowledge and experience from the space industry. I agree with one of the key theses in the article that “Comfort Kills” and that it is important for a home to be an environment that supports practices that improve health, maintaining a balance between the convenience and safety of the home space and avoiding excessive comfort.
Once again, Russian cosmists. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, representatives of this philosophy, such as Vernadsky, Tsiolkovsky, Yefremov, et al saw what was happening on Earth as part of a larger cosmos. Today, Vladimir Serkin, for example, studying the psychology and culture of indigenous peoples, periodically refers to cosmists in his “artistic” works.
It’s also worth mentioning that even in the cycle of books “Ringing Cedars of Russia” by Vladimir Megre, the very one that proposes moving from cities to rural areas in the format of kin domain settlements according to the vision of the hermit Anastasia, it turns out that (in the very last 10th book)… a family homestead (a kin domain)— the one that is one hectare — is… a spaceship… So the worldview provided within Ringing Cedars’ Anastasianism is a really long-termistic one telling the story not only about kin and the planet regeneration, but expanding life on other planets.
The need for long-termism I’ve also discovered while researching various back-to-the-land initiatives and formats including ecovillages. The conclusion that I came, that if you want to create a sustainable ecovillage-like intentional community in rural territory it’s critical to pursue a goal that is significantly broader and visionary than just a self-sufficient neighbourhood with a part of the mission of regeneration of biotopes and social connectedness and vitality (which is also a big deal as well), but having a much larger group of people who contribute in a form of let’s say society for something (see my From Ecovillages and Communities to Societies and Tribes). And that something could be such a space mission locations to prepare for settling on other planets.
E.g. when talking to the locals in Serbia, Alex Ananin stresses that the repopulation of their rural territories in the mountains that get more and more abandoned with all the people related to space research will have a regenerative effect on both plains — social and environmental, with care for local history, people’s health, forests and agricultural lands.
However, since 2019, I’ve increasingly wondered — maybe AI will deal with space and fly there? And people will only settle there when AI has created atmospheres and gardens on new planets. And this is where we need nature reserves and Symbiocenic Environments for AI to learn on, with, and from.
Space, AI, ecology. That’s all connected. Aha.
Some of my other related writings:
- Transformational Eco-Tourism and Art of Symbiocenic Living in Serbia
- Interview with Nara Petrovic (Slovenia)
- Social Slow Travel: Lowcost&Zerowaste
- Symbiocenic Environments
- From Ecovillages and Communities to Societies and Tribes
- Island-based Ecovillages (Finland, Sweden, Karelia)
- Eco-villages, Kin’s Domains and New Farmers: 25 Years of the Modern ‘Back to the Land’ Movement in Russia/CIS
