NASA’s choice to include the device on Orion was deliberate.
It involved a thorough, multistep safety review: turning off all radios,
studying glass-shatter physics, testing the titanium frame in a vacuum, and
confirming the phone wouldn't interfere with navigation systems. The device was
simplified to just recording images and securely placed inside the astronauts’
suits. Its use remained strictly controlled.
The images of Earth with auroras at both poles, the stark
lunar far side, and astronauts seen through Orion’s cabin windows reflect
decades of scientific progress and the work of thousands of engineers,
technicians, and workers across continents. They represent a collective societal
achievement. Within days, Apple’s leadership seized the opportunity. Then CEO
Tim Cook and marketing chief Greg Joswiak posted congratulatory messages on
social media, turning a scientific milestone into a branding opportunity. Apple
repurposed the iconic Earthrise images over the Moon for the “Shot on iPhone”
campaign. Apple transformed what was originally a testament to human
collaborative effort into a marketing tool.
Five months later, the reason for this excitement became
evident. On September 9, 2026, Apple introduced the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18
Pro Max. As expected, the main highlight was the camera. Apple showcased a new
48MP main sensor with a variable aperture, along with the A20 Pro chip and a vapour
chamber cooling system that it claimed delivered the highest sustained
performance ever in an iPhone. Prices increased accordingly: the iPhone 18 Pro
now starts at $1,199, marking a $100 rise from the previous year. Bloomberg
reported that the foldable version would surpass $2,000.
The comparison reveals an important insight. A device built
through global labour exploitation marks humanity’s return to the Moon. A
highly profitable corporation then claims the rights to these images. Several
months later, it sells a newer version of the same device to the working class
at an even higher cost. Both the Moon, the Earth, and scientific progress are
turned into commodities to be bought and sold.
The Commodification of Scientific Achievement
The Artemis II mission is a true testament to human
ingenuity, illustrating the combined efforts of scientists, engineers, and
workers whose collective labour has enabled humans to return near the Moon.
Each part of the Orion spacecraft, along with every line of code, instrument,
and sensor, reflects decades of scientific research, social experience, and
technical improvements. It stands as a victory not of individual talent or
corporate progress but of society's collaborative effort.
Under capitalism, even the greatest scientific breakthroughs
are driven by private profit. When Artemis II orbited behind the Moon, a moment
meant for all humanity, a major corporation quickly claimed it. The astronauts
reached for a consumer device, the iPhone 17 Pro Max, to record the view. This
was not a showcase of Apple’s engineering but a carefully controlled use of a
consumer gadget in a scientific mission, after NASA turned off its radios,
tested its materials, and limited what it could do.
Apple quickly seized the achievement, with executives
flooding social media with congratulatory posts. They turned a major scientific
milestone into a market spectacle. The iconic images of Earth rising over the
lunar horizon, shaped by decades of scientific effort and thousands of workers,
were repurposed as advertising content. What was once human heritage became a
marketing tool.
This reflects the core of commodity fetishism. The social labour
involved miners extracting rare earth metals under harsh conditions, assembly
line workers in China and India working in large factories, and engineers
creating sensors and firmware is obscured. Instead, we see the illusion of a self-sufficient
technological marvel, attributed to corporate brilliance rather than collective
effort. The iPhone appears as a standalone technological wonder, with its
capabilities seeming to arise from Apple’s executives' ingenuity rather than
from the work of millions.
Images from Artemis II, taken by workers risking their
lives, are used to justify a $1,199 price. The working class is asked to pay
increasing prices for products they help create. The same workers who assemble
these devices can't afford them. Millions worldwide face rising living costs,
stagnant wages, and shrinking social services, yet they are told the latest
gadget made through their own exploited labour is essential for modern life.
The iPhone's presence on Orion symbolises how capitalism
warps scientific progress, turning it from a collective human achievement into
a source of profit. The Moon becomes a setting for advertising, with scientists'
and astronauts' work serving marketing purposes. Private firms commandeer
society's accomplishments and sell them back to workers at high prices. Artemis
II shows what humanity can achieve through shared scientific efforts. However,
under capitalism, even space becomes a commodity. The Moon landing is exploited
for corporate branding, and innovations born from collective labour are used
for private wealth. Workers face the stark truth that technologies they develop,
such as lunar-based Earth imaging, are owned and monetised by the capitalist
elite.
The Global Labour Chain Behind the iPhone
Every iPhone results from a complex, global network of
exploited labour. Behind its sleek design, a social process spans continents,
connecting miners, factory workers, engineers, and logistics staff in a
capitalist production system. The minerals used in its components, such as
cobalt, lithium, nickel, copper, and rare earth elements, are mined under
brutal conditions in Africa and Latin America. Workers often operate in
dangerous environments without proper safety gear, risking exposure to toxic
dust, tunnel collapses, and exploitative subcontractors. Child labour remains
widespread in parts of the cobalt supply chain. The raw materials of what is
called the “most advanced consumer device in history” are tainted with the
sweat and blood of some of the world’s poorest populations.
Materials are then shipped to East Asia, where workers
produce chips and components under intense supervision and pressure.
Semiconductor plants in Taiwan, South Korea, and China operate with military-like
discipline. Workers endure long hours, repetitive tasks, and constant
oversight. Even minor procedural mistakes can ruin millions of dollars worth of
wafers, leading management to enforce strict behavioural rules to maintain
productivity. The socalled “miracle” of the Aseries chip, praised by Apple as a
symbol of innovation, is actually the result of disciplined labour, years of
scientific expertise, and the exploitation of thousands of skilled workers
whose efforts often go unnoticed.
Devices are assembled in largescale factories in China,
India, and Vietnam, where hundreds of thousands of workers operate
continuously. The conditions are severe: crowded dormitories, strict security,
long overtime hours, and wages barely enough for basic needs. Workers have
repeatedly protested through walkouts, strikes, and uprisings. The 2022
rebellion at Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant, the world's largest iPhone factory,
highlighted the harsh realities behind Apple’s sleek image. Workers protested
unsafe environments, withheld wages, and opposed strict COVID lockdowns.
Footage showed clashes with security, workers fleeing on foot, and criticism of
management. This uprising uncovered deep social tensions involved in producing
Apple’s flagship product.
However, these workers do not benefit directly from the
value they generate. Instead, it flows upward to Apple’s shareholders,
executives, and investors. Apple boasts trillions of dollars in market value.
Its executives earn multimillion-dollar compensation packages. Shareholders
receive large dividends. The company retains substantial cash reserves,
conducts extensive stock buybacks, and earns rental income through its App
Store and subscription services. The labour of millions is concentrated into
profits for a small elite.
Meanwhile, those who make the devices cannot afford them.
Miners who extract cobalt cannot buy an iPhone, nor can assembly workers who
solder components or logistics staff who ship devices globally. Even in the US
and Britain, millions face rising living costs, stagnant wages, and worsening
social services. They are required to pay $1,199 or $2,000 for the foldable
version of products created through their own exploited labour.
This core contradiction of capitalism highlights that the
working class creates society’s wealth but cannot enjoy its benefits. The
iPhone exemplifies this starkly: hailed as a technological achievement, yet its
production relies on exploiting workers worldwide. Promoted as a tool to boost
creativity, it is, in reality, built on suppressing workers’ rights. While
admired for its innovative design, it depends on harsh mineral extraction and
the strict labour of factory workers.
Apple’s marketing conceals this reality. The corporation
presents the iPhone as a self-contained technological miracle, the product of
visionary leadership and corporate genius. Commodity fetishism reaches its
highest expression: the social labour embodied in the device is erased,
replaced by the illusion of autonomous technological creation. The iPhone
appears as a thing with its own inherent value, detached from the labour that
produced it.
The working class faces this contradiction firsthand: they
produce the device but must give up an increasing part of their wages to buy
it. They generate the wealth, yet the capitalist class takes it. The iPhone is
more than a consumer product; it symbolises the global exploitation capitalism
relies on and highlights the need for a socialist restructuring of production,
where workers reap the benefits.
Artemis II and the Militarisation of Space
The Artemis program reflects capitalism's contradictions.
Washington presents it as a strategic rivalry with China, aiming to dominate
cislunar space, access lunar resources, and expand military influence beyond
Earth orbit. This isn't solely scientific exploration; it continues imperialist
competition into space. The same motives behind tariffs, sanctions, and
semiconductor battles fuel the lunar race.
Private contractors build the rockets, capsules, and systems
used in Artemis, profiting enormously from government contracts. Boeing,
Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX all stand to gain. The scientific
labour of thousands is subordinated to corporate profit interests and the
geopolitical aims of American imperialism. The iPhone embodies these same
relations. It is a consumer device built through exploited labour, marketed
through spectacle, and sold at inflated prices. Its presence aboard Artemis II
is symbolic: the commodification of scientific achievement, the subordination
of exploration to profit, and the transformation of collective labour into
private property.
Leadership Change Without Strategic Change
Apple’s new CEO, John Ternus, led the iPhone 18 Pro launch
amid typical corporate applause. The tech media noted it as his “first
appearance” at the flagship store, implying his personality mattered, though it
doesn’t affect the core social and economic forces shaping Apple. In truth,
this leadership change changes nothing. Apple’s core focus remains unchanged: maximising
profits by commodifying technology, increasing exploitation across its global
supply chains, and expanding rent-seeking practices that keep consumers more
tightly integrated into its ecosystem.
The corporation’s strategy is shaped not by its executives'
personal preferences but by its nature as a large capitalist enterprise. Apple
must prioritise maximising shareholder value, diversifying revenue sources, and
boosting profit margins. This necessity is unavoidable, as it stems from the
fundamental principles of capitalism, which place all human endeavours
scientific, cultural, and technological under the goal of accumulating private
wealth.
Apple continues to focus on increasing revenue per device.
The starting price of $1,199 for the iPhone 18 Pro reflects a sustained trend,
not an anomaly. Each year, Apple tends to raise prices, make repairs more
difficult, and restrict features with proprietary hardware. The company's
marketing often portrays each new release as revolutionary, even when updates
are minor. This strategy seems aimed more at fostering artificial scarcity and
dependency than at genuine innovation. As a result, the working class feels
pressured to buy increasingly expensive devices to stay connected and
participate in modern society.
In addition to rising hardware prices, Apple has increased
its focus on subscription-based revenue. Services like iCloud+, Apple Music,
Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and AppleCare are becoming an increasingly significant
part of the company’s income. These subscriptions are not meant to offer
essential services but are intended to generate steady, recurring fees that
flow from consumers to shareholders. This approach exemplifies rentier
capitalism: earning income not from manufacturing or production, but through
ownership and control of digital assets.
Apple's integration of “AI” features aims to enhance its
ecosystem. These features are promoted as advances in productivity, creativity,
and convenience but primarily serve to generate revenue. AI-driven photo
editing, writing tools, and device optimisation are linked to hardware upgrades
and subscription plans. Although Apple claims these features represent the
future of computing, their main purpose is to justify price hikes and keep
users within their closed ecosystem. The narrative of innovation conceals a
core economic strategy: turning routine digital activities into a continuous
income source.
Apple utilises cultural spectacle to justify rising prices.
Its marketing, from “Shot on iPhone” to keynote events, fosters an image of
exclusivity and desirability. Featuring an iPhone on Artemis II becomes a
marketing tactic, linking the device to scientific and exploratory
achievements. The company rebrands collective accomplishments as proof of its
technological dominance. This spectacle masks the underlying exploitation in
manufacturing and normalises the increasing costs of engaging with Apple’s
ecosystem.
What Technology Could Be Under Socialism
The technological capacities on display a pocket-sized
device capable of recording the Earth setting behind the Moon demonstrate with
striking clarity what humanity can achieve when scientific knowledge
accumulates across generations. The iPhone’s ability to function, even in a
tightly constrained and safety modified form, aboard a spacecraft orbiting the
Moon is not a testament to Apple’s corporate genius but to society's collective
labour. It reflects centuries of scientific inquiry, decades of engineering
refinement, and the coordinated labour of tens of thousands of workers across
multiple continents. The problem is not the technology itself. It is the social
system in which the technology is developed, deployed, and ultimately
commodified.
Under a rational, socialist organisation of production, the
immense scientific and technical capacities embodied in devices like the iPhone
would be liberated from the profit system. Advances in optics, sensors, and
computing would be planned democratically to meet human needs, not to maximise
quarterly earnings. Space exploration would be international, cooperative, and nonmilitarized,
guided by the principle that humanity’s expansion beyond Earth must serve
peaceful and scientific purposes. Devices would be designed for durability,
accessibility, and universal benefit, not planned obsolescence or rent
extraction through subscription services. The fruits of scientific labour would
belong to all humanity, not to shareholders. The Moon and the technologies that
reach it would be treated as common heritage, not as marketing material for a trillion-dollar
corporation.
The contrast is stark. Capitalism turns collective
achievement into private property. Socialism would turn private property back
into collective achievement. The images taken aboard Artemis II point to what
is possible. They show the Earth as a fragile sphere suspended in darkness, a
reminder of humanity’s shared fate. They show the Moon as a world that belongs
to all people, not to corporations or nations. They show human labour’s
capacity to transcend boundaries, overcome immense technical challenges, and
reach new horizons. They reveal the potential of a society organised around
cooperation rather than competition, around human need rather than private
profit.
But under capitalism, even these images are commodified.
They become advertisements for a $1,199 device. They become instruments of
profit extraction. The scientific achievement of returning human beings to the
Moon becomes a backdrop for corporate branding. The labour of astronauts,
engineers, and scientists becomes raw material for marketing campaigns. The
heavens themselves the Moon, the Earth, the vast expanse of space are
transformed into commodities.
The story of the iPhone aboard Artemis II is not a trivial
anecdote. It is a microcosm of the entire capitalist system. Corporations
appropriate scientific achievement. Collective labour becomes private profit.
The working class is asked to purchase the products of its own exploitation.
The technologies that enable exploration of the Moon, the devices that capture
images of the Earth, and the scientific achievements that expand human
knowledge are all subordinated to the profit interests of a tiny minority.
The return to the Moon should be a moment of global unity, a
demonstration of humanity’s capacity for cooperation and scientific progress.
Instead, it becomes a marketing opportunity for Apple and a geopolitical
manoeuvre for American imperialism. Artemis II is framed not as a scientific
mission but as part of a strategic competition with China, an extension of great-power
rivalry into cislunar space. Private contractors build the rockets, capsules,
and systems used in the mission, profiting enormously from government
contracts. The scientific labour of thousands is subordinated to corporate
profit interests and the geopolitical aims of the American ruling class.
The working class must draw the necessary conclusions. The
technologies that enable exploration of the Moon, the devices that capture
images of the Earth, and the scientific achievements that expand human
knowledge must be liberated from the profit system. They must be placed under
democratic, socialist control. Only then can scientific progress serve humanity
as a whole rather than the narrow interests of shareholders and imperialist
governments.
The Moon belongs to all of humanity. So too should the
fruits of the labour that took us there. The images captured aboard Artemis II
reveal not only the beauty of the Earth and the Moon but the potential of human
labour when freed from the constraints of capitalism. They point toward a
future in which scientific achievement is no longer commodified, technology
serves human need, and the heavens are explored not for profit or geopolitical
advantage but to advance knowledge and enrich human life.
The task before the working class is clear: to overthrow the
capitalist system that commodifies the heavens and to build a socialist society
in which the full potential of human ingenuity can be realised. Only then will
the Moon, the Earth, and the technologies that connect them truly belong to
all.
Further Reading
1. Commodity Fetishism & Technology
Fuchs, C. (2014). “Digital Labour and Karl Marx.” Routledge.
A foundational text in Marxist digital labour theory. Fuchs analyses how
consumer technologies embody hidden labour relations and argues that digital
commodities intensify fetishism by obscuring global labour chains.
Graham, M. & Anwar, M. (2019). “The global gig
economy: Towards a planetary labour market?” First Monday, 24(4).
Explores how digital commodities rely on dispersed labour networks. Useful for
framing the iPhone as a planetary commodity.
Mosco, V. (2016). “The Paywall: The Business of
Scholarship in the Digital Age.” Digital Journalism, 4(1). Discusses
how digital infrastructures become rentextraction mechanisms directly relevant
to Apple’s subscription strategy.
2. Global Supply Chains & Electronics Labour
Chan, J. (2013). “A suicide survivor: The life of a
Chinese worker.” New Technology, Work and Employment, 28(2). A
detailed ethnographic study of Foxconn labour conditions. Essential for
grounding your section on the Zhengzhou uprising.
Pun, N. & Chan, J. (2012). “Global Capital, the
State, and Chinese Workers: The Foxconn Experience.” Modern China,
38(4). Examines Foxconn’s labour regime, militarised management, and the
structural exploitation behind electronics assembly.
Smith, J. (2016). “Imperialism in the Twenty-First
Century: Globalisation, SuperExploitation, and Capitalism’s Final Crisis.” Monthly
Review Press. Not an article but widely cited in journals; provides the
theoretical basis for analysing global labour arbitrage in electronics.
3. Space Exploration, Imperialism & Geopolitics
Siddiqi, A. (2015). “The Red Rocket’s Glare: Spaceflight
and the Soviet Imagination.” Cambridge University Press. Shows how
space exploration has historically been embedded in state power and
geopolitical rivalry.
JohnsonFrey, S. (2020). “Militarisation of Cislunar
Space.” Astropolitics, 18(3). Explores how US space policy
increasingly frames the Moon as a strategic domain directly relevant to your
Artemis II analysis.
Gorman, A. (2009). “The archaeology of space
exploration.” Journal of Social Archaeology, 9(1). Argues that space
artefacts (including images) become cultural commodities, a perfect academic
parallel to your “heavens as commodity” argument.
4. Science & Technology Studies (STS) Perspectives
Winner, L. (1980). “Do Artefacts Have Politics?” Daedalus,
109(1). A classic argument that technologies embody political relations, foundational
for your claim that the iPhone reflects capitalist social relations.
Edwards, P. (2010). “A Vast Machine: Computer Models,
Climate Data, and the Politics of Knowledge.” MIT Press. Shows how
scientific infrastructures are shaped by political economy, useful for framing
NASA’s technological systems.
Suchman, L. (2007). “Human-Machine Reconfigurations.” Cambridge
University Press. Explores how human labour and machines coproduce
meaning, relevant to your analysis of astronauts using consumer devices.
Academic Bibliography
Marxist Theory & Political Economy
- Marx,
K. (1867) Capital: Volume I. Hamburg: Otto Meissner Verlag.
- Marx,
K. (1859) A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy.
Berlin: Franz Duncker.
- Lenin,
V.I. (1916) Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism.
Petrograd: Zhizn i Znanie.
- Smith,
J. (2016) Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century. New York:
Monthly Review Press.
- Fuchs,
C. (2014) Digital Labour and Karl Marx. London: Routledge.
Global Labour Chains & Electronics
- Chan,
J. (2013) ‘A suicide survivor: The life of a Chinese worker’, New
Technology, Work and Employment, 28(2), pp. 84–96.
- Pun,
N. & Chan, J. (2012) ‘Global Capital, the State, and Chinese Workers:
The Foxconn Experience’, Modern China, 38(4), pp. 383–408.
- Graham,
M. & Anwar, M. (2019) ‘The global gig economy: Towards a planetary
labour market?’, First Monday, 24(4).
Space Exploration, Imperialism & Geopolitics
- Siddiqi,
A. (2015) The Red Rocket’s Glare. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
- JohnsonFrey,
S. (2020) ‘Militarisation of Cislunar Space’, Astropolitics, 18(3),
pp. 210–230.
- Gorman,
A. (2009) ‘The archaeology of space exploration’, Journal of Social
Archaeology, 9(1), pp. 85–109.
Science & Technology Studies
- Winner,
L. (1980) ‘Do Artefacts Have Politics?’, Daedalus, 109(1), pp.
121–136.
- Edwards,
P. (2010) A Vast Machine. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- Suchman,
L. (2007) HumanMachine Reconfigurations. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Capitalism, Technology & Culture
- Mosco,
V. (2016) ‘The Paywall: The Business of Scholarship in the Digital Age’, Digital
Journalism, 4(1), pp. 1–18.
- Srnicek,
N. (2017) Platform Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press.
