Danielle Wood was quoted in a recent Daily Beast article by Joanna Thompson, "Inside the Fight to Save Mars From Inheriting Earth's Mess."  The article reads, in part:

"Danielle Wood, a systems engineer at MIT’s Media Lab with a focus on justice, sustainability and inclusion, believes in the power of social movements to change society. She dreams of melding grassroots activism with policy to craft a healthier future in space. 'I spend a lot of time studying the activism and struggles of communities that have experienced oppression,' she told The Daily Beast. 'Obviously, there’s a lot of work to do, but we have made some progress.'

To Wood, the very idea of space as a frontier to be settled is a damaging one. Historically, she said, the U.S. and other colonial powers have used the romantic notion of frontiersman-ship to expand their territory, encouraging individuals to land grab under their country’s flag. But she sees a better way forward; for all its policy imperfections, she cites the spirit of the Outer Space Treaty as a beautiful example of how nations once came together and opted for peace, even during the Cold War.

Instead, Wood wants to push forward space technologies that aren’t designed to help us escape Earth, but rather make it a better place to live. "