I love astronomy and astrophysics and the academic side of space research. However I am anti-space travel because we’re already surrounded by artificiality: everywhere there’s roads, power lines, introduced species, houses, wayward trash, the constant roar of traffic in the distance (and I live in a rural area!). Even the forests are not real: they’re monoculture tree farms. Many stars are not real: they’re satellites. But at least the moon is real, until we start building moon bases and mining facilities and stain its surface with light pollution. How can I be “pro-space” when everyone from space agencies to corporations seem so giddy to colonize the one mostly-untouched beautiful thing left–something that anyone anywhere on earth can gaze upon–and besmirch it too with humanity’s influence?