Rocket to nowhere
The article criticizes the Artemis program as a poorly managed, politically motivated project that has spent billions with little tangible progress toward returning humans to the Moon, contrasting it with the more efficient Apollo program and questioning its long-term viability.
Background
- The article is by Federico Pereiro, an independent software developer and writer who focuses on (and critiques) the tech industry, minimalism, and open-source culture.
- "Rocket to nowhere" examines the space industry (SpaceX, Blue Origin, etc.) and argues that private space exploration has become a flashy but hollow endeavor — a "rocket to nowhere" because it sells escape fantasies rather than solving pressing problems on Earth.
- Pereiro draws on the history of the "space race" (US vs. USSR, 1950s–1970s) to contrast Cold War-era ambitions with today's billionaire-funded ventures, which he sees as lacking a meaningful destination or purpose beyond profit and spectacle.
- The piece also touches on the "California ideology" — a term from Barbrook and Cameron's 1995 essay — which describes the fusion of 1960s counterculture, Silicon Valley libertarianism, and free-market boosterism that shape tech billionaires' worldview.
- Pereiro's critique fits a broader current of skepticism toward "techno-solutionism" and the idea that technology alone can solve structural social, economic, and environmental problems.