Mahendra Singh Rawat
Recently, I watched an American TV series Space Force which is a light comedy and can be enjoyed by people of any age. For me, the main attraction of this show was Steve Carrell whose comedy I have enjoyed over the years. If the only reason to see space force was Steve then the show must have waned while progressing forward. It is the story that kept me involved until the last moment.
The story is about the newly formed Space Force by the US government, the challenges it is facing, a few funny moments here and there and the life of the protagonist itself. I totally assumed this show to be a total fiction with no connection to reality when unexpectedly while watching the show I bumped upon an old statement of Donald Trump about Space Force. What!!
On reading the news maybe in the New York Times, I don’t clearly remember, I came to know the Space Force is real; the USA has a Space Force in working condition with more than 5000 active space soldiers. Now the whole TV series has changed for me. It is no longer only a comedy show for me. Now the dots are starting to connect, the international happenings on the “out of the earth” front make lots more sense to me than they were making before. Let’s see how.
The protagonist works his way through the politics and manages to take sole control of the Space Force from the Air Force, but the real challenges lie ahead. Along with his daughter, he has to make his President happy so that the control doesn’t go back to the Air Force. Things move forward and the team somehow successfully reaches the moon. Now is the time where it all starts making sense to me.
On reaching the moon they are welcomed by their adversaries (on earth and moon too) – the China mission. It seems obvious but here is where the rivalry forged on earth is dragged to the ‘out of the earth’. Members of the respective countries come face to face and start micro wars on the moon.
How is it connected to real events or happening is the main question. The USA some time back announced it is no longer a part of the 1967 Space Treaty signed by 111 countries. The old treaty roughly said that every person on the Earth has an equal stake in the resources (especially moon) outside the Earth. However, the new thinking was that whoever invests in the resource exploitation outside Earth deserves the resources.
We know that the natural resources on Earth are not limitless and hence the new trend towards the land full of possibilities for exploitation i.e. the Moon. Today, outer space has become a battle ground for world powers. Moon and outer space will be a new earth for these countries.
Scientific advancements are made at a cost but in the end, it is for the good and welfare of humanity, we have created thousands of weapons, wars, advancements in technologies, exploited nature in every possible way but our greed doesn’t seem to end. This greed has made Earth uninhabitable at places and new places will surely follow. Instead of rectification of the Earth’s deterioration, an act of brazenness is afoot in the fight for outer space.
Space Force was like a surprise for me. I started watching it for fun, for the comedy it contained but it turned out to be a completely dark comedy for me.
Mahendra Singh Rawat
Volunteer and Science communicator at a socio-cultural organisation called AARAMBH based in Kumaun (Uttarakhand), working to inculcate a rational thinking among the masses. Postgraduate in Zoology. Completed diploma in Science Journalism. Interested in reading, writing and communicating science.
Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand (262530)