Space exploration? There can’t be many more self-indulgent ways to damage our planet than to burn off huge quantities of rocket fuel - Andy Brown

There can’t be many more self-indulgent ways to damage our planet than to burn off huge quantities of rocket fuel and to leave harmful vapour trails across the sky without any clear objective other than fun and self-promotion. Space has become the final front job.

There have been almost a hundred dedicated women scientists who have put their lives on the line to make long research trips and to put in seriously useful work in space. Suni Williams made justifiable headlines recently as she just got on with doing a different set of complex jobs for a lot longer than expected when unable to leave the International Space Station for over nine months. That is what a good scientist does.

Gushing about feeling love after staring out of a window and getting photographed playing around in weightlessness has nothing to do with inspiring young women to take up science. It just jeopardises their future.

One of the great ironies of the enthusiasm of the very rich for extreme adventure holidays is that several of those indulging in them say they have been inspired by their love of science fiction yet have somehow convinced themselves that backing President Trump financially is consistent with a love of science and technology.

Scientific programmes in the States are being gutted with a vengeance and information that political rulers find inconvenient is being suppressed.

There has been a lot of publicity about the damaging impact of Trump’s daily changes to policy on tariffs and his complete failure to understand some basic facts of economics such as that VAT is a tax that applies equally to products coming from any country and is not a tariff.

There has been a lot less information about the extent of the attacks on scientific knowledge that are underway. This goes well beyond the open opposition to the benefits of vaccination programmes being put into practice by Robert Kennedy Junior, which has already resulted in deaths from measles increasing in frequency in the States and of increased risks for anyone in Britain whose child remains unprotected.

What is happening is much more widespread and dangerous even than the reckless act of putting a science denier in charge of national health policy. Any agency which obtains factual scientific data on the earth’s changing climate is having its funding cut. Universities such as Harvard are being threatened with taxes on endowment programmes and having funding cut if they don’t teach the prejudices of politicians as of equal value to scientific fact. Long running research programmes are being closed down because the evidence they produce is unwelcome. Scientists are losing jobs if they dare to publish objective conclusions that the government doesn’t like.

All of this has been accompanied by changes to the ownership of more and more of the outlets of information that are easily available in the States and have an important influence over here. Twitter has ceased to be any kind of equal and fair discussion forum as views that agree with the latest rant of the white South African immigrant to the US, Elon Musk, are promoted by algorithms whilst opposition voices are deliberately suppressed. The Washington Post was bought by Jeff Bezos for $250m in cash and told to change its reporting. Journalists there were sacked on the orders of an oligarch claiming to favour free speech.

In such circumstances there is one ambition of a billionaire to take a trip into space that it is extremely tempting to back. Elon Musk has long claimed that he would like to be part of humanity's next great adventure on the frontiers of space and be one of the colonisers of Mars. It is indeed one of the key reasons he gives for putting so much time and money into the development of SpaceX.

He tells us a lot less about the extraordinarily high value of the contracts that SpaceX has obtained from its connections within the US government. Or of the commercial value he gains from owning so much of the satellite network we rely on.

There is, however, one thing that would be wise to ensure before we cheer Elon Musk off on that rocket to Mars. It might be rather sensible to try and ensure that life on earth is safe and secure from the impact of all the fossil fuels these tech oligarchs have been burning before we start trying to learn how to survive on a much less hospitable planet.

Andy Brown is the Green Party councillor for Aire Valley in North Yorkshire.