Al infinito y más acá. La conquista espacial y sus identidades. Condiciones y figuras de una futurización corporativa

Abstract

The article investigates an aspect of space exploration with an impact on politics, culture and social identities: corporate futurizations, embodied in SpaceX, of the project of human colonization of space, especially Mars. Relying on an archive built with testimonies of experts and workers involved in space projects, reports, books and documentaries, the article begins by presenting some novelties and conditions —technological, political, economic and legal changes— of the current space race. Next, simulation is explored as a fundamental practice for imagining space futures, and then the vision of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is explored as a specific case of imagining the colonization of Mars. In this sense, the interrogation of corporate forecasts and desires allows us to reflect on the current dynamics between colonial logics and space futurizations (defined in the article with a neologism, “corporate terrasocioformation”), seeking to understand what kind of space identity is configured, and what kind of relationship it establishes with Earth. In closing, a critique that feeds other images of spatial future are discussed.