Billionaires and space tourists: ‘We can’t let anything happen without regulation’
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With the semi-orbital flights of Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson in July, it looks like the era of space tourism is about to take off. Engineering feats, these recreational voyages of great fortunes raise ethical, environmental and social questions. Lighting with Philippe Droneau from Cité de l’Espace.
Spend the equivalent of several hundred flights between Paris and New York in a few minutes: after Richard Branson on July 11, Jeff Bezos opened his space tourism program on the 20th. In addition to billionaires, who are presidents of Virgin and Amazon respectively, Elon Musk, the wealthy founder plans For Tesla, to send non-professionals into space.
If at present this tourism is directed only to a limited number of wallets, it does carry risks nonetheless “Crowding suborbital flights for reasons completely independent of science, technology, or human progress”, confirms the microphone of Sputnik Philippe Drono, the director in charge of the mission at the Cité de l’Espace, in Toulouse. “We are entering into a scheme that has no moral meaning: everyone has, of course, the right to realize their dreams, but our planet is a finite element in which the proportion of carbon increases uncontrollably.”
He pointed the finger at the fundamental inequality: “In a context where everyone has to cut carbon emissions, unregulated space tourism is kind of a provocation to do anything without affecting the way we live with others.” Since then, “International institutions and space agencies should regulate, regulate, or even tax these activities.”
Furthermore, Philip Drono concludes thatWe’re faced with something that has nothing to do with the yellow jackets issue, for example. The Yellow Vests reacted to the fact that we charge low taxes, but admittedly people with modest incomes. While we are talking here about very high incomes that can be taxed on a large scale without causing any problem.”
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