Today, I read about Senator Mark Kelly joining a push for increased Mars exploration funding, and my first thought was: who really benefits from that?
I am not suggesting Kelly is trying to enrich Elon Musk. I have no reason to think that is the case. And I’m not anti-science or anti-space exploration, either. Discovery matters. Research matters. Human curiosity matters.
What concerns me is something broader, and frankly more common in modern politics: well-intentioned public investment often ends up flowing through systems that heavily benefit private corporations, whether lawmakers fully think through those consequences or not.
Because in today’s world, expanding America’s ambitions in space does not stop at funding NASA scientists and astronauts. It also means investing in an aerospace industry where private contractors, especially Elon Musk’s SpaceX, play an enormous and growing role.
And the more I sat with that thought, the more one uncomfortable realization kept nagging at me: Elon Musk keeps placing himself at the center of nearly every conversation about humanity’s future.
Space Is Big Business Now
Once upon a time, space exploration felt like something we did together. The government funded it, scientists led it, and when something amazing happened, it felt like a win for humanity, not for shareholders. But that is not really how it works anymore.
Today, Elon Musk’s SpaceX is one of NASA’s biggest contractors, with billions in federal contracts and a hand in everything from rocket development to lunar mission planning. The Pentagon and intelligence community also use SpaceX for military and national security launches.
I understand why governments partner with private contractors. That part is not unusual. What is unusual is how much of that work now seems to run through one man.
Because at this point, Musk is not just participating in America’s future in space. He is embedded in it.
A Private Network Around the Planet
Through Starlink, Musk has built a privately owned satellite internet network that now circles the globe. Thousands of satellites already orbit overhead, and more are going up all the time. Governments use it. Militaries use it. Civilians use it. Entire regions increasingly depend on infrastructure controlled by one billionaire whom no one elected and no one meaningfully oversees.
That alone should concern more people than it does.
Controlling the Digital Town Square
And then there is X (formerly Twitter), now paired with its AI platform, Grok.
Because apparently building rockets and communications networks was not enough, Musk also bought one of the world’s largest social media platforms, giving himself influence over a digital space where politicians, journalists, activists, and everyday citizens all compete for public attention.
He is not just helping shape infrastructure anymore. He also has the ability to shape the conversation around it.
That is an extraordinary amount of influence for one unelected person to hold.
The Next Frontier Is the Human Brain
Then there is Neuralink, Musk’s brain-implant company.
If brain-computer technology can help people with paralysis or severe neurological disorders, that could be a remarkable advancement.
But the same man helping shape space travel, global communications, and online discourse is now venturing into technology designed to interface directly with the human brain.
At some point, you stop looking at these as separate business ventures and start noticing the pattern.
A rocket company. A global communications network. A social media platform with integrated AI. A brain-implant company.
This stops feeling like ordinary entrepreneurship and starts feeling like one man trying to position himself at the center of modern civilization.
The issue is not that Elon Musk wants to innovate. The issue is not even that he wants Mars.
The issue is that we have somehow grown comfortable allowing billionaires to accumulate extraordinary influence over transportation, communications, media, artificial intelligence, scientific advancement, and public infrastructure, all with very little meaningful democratic oversight.
No one elected Elon Musk. No one appointed him steward of humanity’s future. He seems to have appointed himself.
Yet contract by contract, company by company, platform by platform, he keeps positioning himself as exactly that.
And perhaps before we start talking about who gets to shape life on Mars, we should spend a little more time asking who we are allowing to shape life here on Earth.
Sources / Further Reading
- Schiff, Adam. “Sens. Schiff and Padilla Lead Calls for Mars Exploration Funding in NASA Funding Bill.” U.S. Senate Press Release, April 15, 2026.
- Reuters. “SpaceX, ULA, Blue Origin Clinch $13.5 Billion Pentagon Launch Contracts.” April 4, 2025.
- Reuters. “Exclusive: Musk’s SpaceX Is Building Spy Satellite Network for U.S. Intelligence Agency.” March 16, 2024.
- Reuters. “SpaceX, Blue Origin Moon Landers in Focus After NASA’s Artemis Success.” April 14, 2026.
- NASA. “Moon to Mars | Artemis Program.”
- Reuters. “Starlink Outage Hit Drone Tests, Exposing Pentagon’s Growing Reliance on SpaceX.” April 16, 2026.
- The Guardian. “Musk’s AI Tool Grok Will Be Integrated Into Pentagon Networks, Hegseth Says.” January 13, 2026.
- Neuralink Official Website / Company Overview.
Discover more from Blog for Arizona
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
We are not going to see humans on Mars in any of our lifetimes because science.
https://www.astronomy.com/science/why-havent-humans-reached-mars/
FYI, because Elmo cheap’d out and used camera’s instead of Lidar, your Tesla is NEVER going to have Full Self Driving.
NEVER. Stop believe Space Karen’s stock pump scams. He should be in prison for market manipulation many, many times over.
Now he’s pivoting to robots. Cool, did you all see his latest robot demo?
Hilarious. Monty Python level stuff! Fake as fuck.
The Boring Company, his brilliant idea to “save money” by putting roads underground (OMFG!) was a Microsoft F.U.D. style scam to kill off high speed rail, according to the Nazi twat-waffle himself.
Oh, hey! I saw a story this week that The Space Force! is planning on putting weapons on the moon.
Imagine you and your sweetie, holding hands, looking up at that glowing machine gun nest in the sky….so romantic!
Why is it always our first thought, when we invent/discover something, to figure out how we can use it to murder each other?
We’ve known since the Apollo missions that moon dust is unhealthy and sticks to everything, where it acts like an abrasive and grinds even metal as smooth as John Government Check’s Kavanagh’s brain.
There are reasons we haven’t gone back to the moon since, there are better ways to spend our science money.
Elmo is the second greatest con-man of our generation. DOGE cost more than it saved (where’s that trillion in savings, Elon?), it was a scam to get our data, and when one of his company’s fail, like Xitter, he merges with another company to hide it.
Which should also get him locked up.
Now he tells us that Xitter, SpaceX, and the rest were actually…..drum roll…. all A.I. companies all along!
Which actually makes sense because as someone who works in tech I can assure you A.I. is a massive scam that will provide millions in benefits while costing TRILLIONS and cooking the planet.
Elmo is the Number One Welfare Queen in the USA and we truly live in the dumbest time.
When I was soliciting government contracts for ongoing services each contract had a clause that with a 30 day notice the contract could be terminated at the convenience of the government. Wonder if that clause is still inserted into contracts or did Elmo Skum and his ilk lobby to have it cast into the dustbin of history.