The Martian desk lamp

There’s a good deal of skepticism about the merits of breaching this next space frontier in the scientific and commercial communities alike. And with good reason: On our own planet, the world is burning (literally in California, the Amazon, Australia and Indonesia to name a few locations that were devestated by fires in recent times), our ice caps are melting, and around the globe species are dying out.

This is all to say, there are plenty of problems on Earth that need fixing before we imprint ourselves on another planet. Should we really be spending money and resources on space exploration when we haven’t adequately addressed our own terrestrial crises?

And, is colonizing another planet really the answer to the potential extinction of our own?

In the forefront, The Martian desk lamp does not serve as a lamp, but as a kind reminder that problems we’re trying to solve on Earth will only follow us to Mars and cannot be turned off like a switch.⁠⠀

CATEGORY
Speculative design

YEAR
2020

CO-AUTHOR
Brina Steblovnik