The notion of colonising the Moon or Mars, the emergence of space tourism, and the move towards commercial lunar mining might seem like futurism, but when we look at the relationship between corporations and powerful states underneath these competitions, there’s nothing new. International law and international relations have seen these trends repeated for hundreds of years. Dr Cait Storr shares her expertise in the history and politics of international law, the lessons learned for space law, and we discuss why “space colonisation” is such a problematic approach.