Alternative Futures of Space:
Mars mission. When they launched the first three any interaction between astro-prisoners and free
astro-prisoners to Mars, they had been cutting settlers as this specific detail is mentioned in the
corners already for at least a decade. leaked document. 1
SPACEXILE Astro-prisoners were limited in the types and
Pouyan Bizeh, August 2019
spaceXile: MARS, A Scenario
amounts of food they could grow in their
aeroponics towers. One reason for this was
probably that the company would be able to
When studying the history of space explorations,
collecting the bodily functions data to research the lack of a certain approach to space becomes
labs. At least that was what they claimed initially. In apparent;
reality, the company was afraid of potential revolts the
and the way it would harm their reputation in a mainstream image of space and instead focuses on
show broadcasted worldwide. Their developers exploring more radical possibilities and providing
invented a seed printing device, so they would new design and conversation opportunities.
transmit the genetic data only. It increased the spaceXile, a fictional corporation with a mission
company’s control drastically and prevented a to send prisoners to space, certainly fits the
cargo delivery that otherwise would take years to aforementioned criteria.
often
marketable
associates
itself
to
endeavors, etc. Producing this public image
samples on the Martian surface. What the appears to begin as a deliberate effort to persuade
public see on their TV screens is just a face. The politicians and create a sense of national pride in
company’s bots and algorithms sell the tasks the taxpayer.
their tasks. They limited prisoners’ control so they
would not do any damaging things to company’s
property or reputation in front of the cameras
the death-row inmates who were stocked in a
exploration
and
from
For most hours they are forced to collect research
and through airlocks to force the inmates to finish
biggest incarceration corporations. Courts soon
adventurous
itself
extra-terrestrial discovery missions, deep Space
then control the oxygen pressure in different pods
prominent private space company and one of the
Space
distances
proud and majestic images of rocket launches,
some help from the show’s writing crew. They can
United States, the main question was how to treat
gloriously
that
continue to be often brutal towards the inmates.
optimized the workflow as well as the story with
v. Texas outlawed capital punishment in the
one
Today, their design solutions and approaches
of astro-prisoners in semi-private auctions and
Therefore, spaceXile was born as a joint venture of a
EXPLORATION AND SOCIAL PUNISHMENT
outsource the process of controlling food and
accomplish.
In 2026, when the Supreme Court case Chalmington
DECONSTRUCTING THE SCENARIO: SPACE
e.g. they cannot remove their helmets to commit
On the other hand, the historical trend of humanity’s
explorations in the realms of the unknown had
not resulted in as shiny images. The explorers
usually suffered their ways to the new world. They
brought diseases, war, and famine to their hosts.
They displaced people to unknown places against
their wills. While these few sentences might make
you think of a certain event in history, this seemed
suicide while outside because the lock mechanism to be a recurring theme. 2
is programmed by the ground control. Let us take the case of Australia. In late 18th and
followed the demand for labor prisoners to be sent The astro-prisoners are kept in solitary cells that early 19th century, about 164,000 convicts were
legal limbo. Courts started revisiting the cases. It to manned missions to space. spaceXile call these they built upon arriving in Mars, using the cheap was a general consensus that neither the taxpayer prisoner laborers astro-prisoners. To maintain the yet impenetrable Velcro-adobe technology. They should pay for the extended imprisonment of profit margin for investors, the company planned clean their skins using chemicals that remove those who were already convicted with capital for a reality television show to be made from the dirt and oils from the surface and would allegedly punishment, nor these inmates should be freed in off-world colonies of spaceXile and broadcasted cause cancer. the society, even with proper controlling measures. to earth. After rounds of negotiations, they finally This was why the idea of George Mustain, founder signed an agreement with a television company of spaceXile, seemed perfect. He suggested that to be their media partner in the project.
a collaboration between private incarceration and
private space industries could potentially benefit
from these inmates.
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HUMAN FUTURES
8 years and a few manned missions to Mars later,
the company is looking forward to sending the
free settlers to the colony. Last month one of the
Many details of the missions were kept secret from contracts between the company and the settlers
the public. In 2038, a short four years after the first was leaked to the press. It became clear that the
human landed on Mars, spaceXile started its first company’s new challenge is to find ways to prevent
exiled to Australia on board 806 ships. Living
conditions were miserable on board these ships
and this was often considered as a punishment
in itself rather than an inevitable byproduct of
the exile process.
3
Interestingly, shipping the
1 This is a work of fiction. Names of characters, events, and
places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual people, events,
and places is coincidental.
2 e.g. The Roman explorations of northern Europe, Persians and
Arabs Explorations in eastern Africa, and probably the most
noteworthy, the European explorations in the Americas.
3 “Convicts and the British colonies in Australia,” Australian
Government, accessed December 15, 2015, http://web.archive.
org/web/20160101181100/http://www.australia.gov.au/about-
australia/australian-story/convicts-and-the-british-colonies
HUMAN FUTURES
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