Capital and the Cosmos: War, Society and the Quest for Profit

This book offers a new understanding of society’s relations with the cosmos. Entrepreneurs such as Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk receive a great deal of publicity, but offer unlikely and implausible visions of space tourism for the general public. Meanwhile, asteroids are seen as ‘rare materials’ which will be extracted and used to produce untold riches for earthbound citizens.

The reality is rather different. First, there is no evidence that owners of capital are attempting to extract ‘rare’ ma...