Outer Space History Research Papers (original) (raw)

Imagining Outer Space makes a captivating advance into the cultural history of outer space and extraterrestrial life in the European imagination. How was outer space conceived and communicated? What promises of interplanetary expansion... more

Imagining Outer Space makes a captivating advance into the cultural history of outer space and extraterrestrial life in the European imagination. How was outer space conceived and communicated? What promises of interplanetary expansion and cosmic colonization propelled the project of human spaceflight to the forefront of twentieth-century modernity? In what way has West-European astroculture been affected by the continuous exploration of outer space? Tracing the current thriving interest in spatiality to early attempts at exploring imaginary worlds beyond our own, the book analyzes contact points between science and fiction from a transdisciplinary perspective and examines sites and situations where utopian images and futuristic technologies contributed to the omnipresence of fantasmatic thought. Bringing together state-of-the-art work in this emerging field of historical research, Imagining Outer Space breaks new ground in the historicization of the Space Age.

This is a paper for the book "Moving to Mars: Design for the Red Planet" in conjunction with the homonymous exhibition at the Design Museum in London in 2019. The book is edited by Andrew Nahum and Justin McGuirk.

Ubiquitous, limitless and ever-expanding as it may be, outer space has a history too. Although it is virtually impossible to experience outer space in a direct, unmediated manner, historians can study how it was represented, communicated... more

Ubiquitous, limitless and ever-expanding as it may be, outer space has a history too. Although it is virtually impossible to experience outer space in a direct, unmediated manner, historians can study how it was represented, communicated and perceived. In addition to presenting the core questions that drive the Imagining Outer Space volume this chapter introduces the umbrella concept of ‘astroculture,’ discusses the necessity to ‘Europeanize’ space history and suggests to regard ‘science fiction’ and ‘science fact’ as complementary rather than contradictory. The article also draws attention to two further characteristics of twentieth-century astroculture, that is its futuristic, often explicitly utopian strand as well as a strong transcendental, if not outspokenly religious undercurrent.

Beginning in 1947, with the first waves of UFO sightings, and continuing in the subsequent decades, debates on the existence and gestalt of extraterrestrial life gained unprecedented prominence. Initially an American phenomenon, flying... more

Beginning in 1947, with the first waves of UFO sightings, and continuing in the subsequent decades, debates on the existence and gestalt of extraterrestrial life gained unprecedented prominence. Initially an American phenomenon, flying saucer reports quickly became global in scope. Contemporaneous with efforts to legitimize the possibility of spaceflight in the years before Sputnik, the UFO phenomenon generated as much sensation in Europe as in the USA. In the public imagination, UFOs were frequently conflated with technoscientific approaches to space exploration. As innumerable reports of sightings led to a transnational movement driven by both proponents and critics, controversial protagonists such as ‘contactee’ George Adamski became prominent media celebrities. Incipient space experts including Willy Ley, Arthur C. Clarke, and Wernher von Braun sought to debunk what they considered a great swindle, or, following C.G. Jung, a modern myth evolving in real-time. Yet they failed to develop a response to the epistemic-ontological challenge posed by one wave of UFO sightings after another. Studying a phenomenon whose very existence has been non-consensual since its genesis presents a particular challenge for historians. Posing complex questions of fact and fiction, knowing and believing, and science and religion, this article analyzes the postwar UFO phenomenon as part of a broader astroculture and identifies transcendental and occult traditions within imagined encounters with extraterrestrial beings.

The third mission of the supersecret X-37B is landing back to Earth & the globe knows little about what it did up there. Suspicions and speculation on its purpose abounds fostering an entire cottage industry around it. Mounds of... more

The third mission of the supersecret X-37B is landing back to Earth & the globe knows little about what it did up there. Suspicions and speculation on its purpose abounds fostering an entire cottage industry around it. Mounds of literature are parroted on its known parameters & yet very little is known about the most important component of this spacecraft-the payload bay. Data on the payload bay is delightfully vague. Consequently, the purpose of the space craft is not known. This paper hence attempts to make sense of the purpose of the space craft by looking at its genesis and comparing it against three parameters; (a) The Military Doctrines driving the X-37 B (b) The budgetary allocations for the project (c) The Quadrennial Review, Nuclear Posture Review, Space Posture Review and National Space Policy of the US. Based on these, an attempt to credibly surmise the purpose of the spacecraft has been undertaken.

After the Apollo moon landings, disillusionment set in. With the return of the last astronaut in 1972, the skies – rather than the distant stars – once again became the limit. No longer considered the inevitable destination of infinite... more

After the Apollo moon landings, disillusionment set in. With the return of the last astronaut in 1972, the skies – rather than the distant stars – once again became the limit. No longer considered the inevitable destination of infinite human expansion, outer space lost much of the popular appeal, cultural significance and political urgency that it had gained since the end of the Second World War. With the rapid waning of the worldwide Apollo frenzy, the optimism of the Space Age gave way to an era of planetized limits and space fatigue. Bringing together the history of European astroculture and American-Soviet spaceflight with recent scholarship on the 'long 1970s,' the thirteen chapters in this cutting-edge volume examine this period of transition and reconfiguration from a multiplicity of disciplinary perspectives. Rather than invoking oft-repeated narratives of a bipolar Cold War rivalry and an escalating Space Race, Limiting Outer Space breaks fascinating new ground by exploring a hitherto underrated and understudied decade, the Post-Apollo period.

The first satellite Sputnik came about in 1957, the law regulating activities in outer space came in a decade later. The law was then dynamic and evolved to fulfill the changing needs of the world. Quite unfortunately, it stopped evolving... more

The first satellite Sputnik came about in 1957, the law regulating activities in outer space came in a decade later. The law was then dynamic and evolved to fulfill the changing needs of the world. Quite unfortunately, it stopped evolving a decade later. The stagnation has cost dearly as the following slides would reveal.

Der Weltraum war nicht immer da, sondern ist ein Produkt des 20. Jahrhunderts. Lange vor dem Kalten Krieg entstand im Wechselspiel von Astrokultur, Zukunftsdenken und Raumfahrttechnik ein Imaginationsraum, der bis heute als... more

Der Weltraum war nicht immer da, sondern ist ein Produkt des 20. Jahrhunderts. Lange vor dem Kalten Krieg entstand im Wechselspiel von Astrokultur, Zukunftsdenken und Raumfahrttechnik ein Imaginationsraum, der bis heute als Projektionsfläche und Sehnsuchtsort fasziniert.

Through the twentieth century, the continual exploration of outer space and its imaginary colonization in science and fiction has led to a new understanding of the space-time continuum. While the physical space surrounding planet Earth... more

Through the twentieth century, the continual exploration of outer space and its imaginary colonization in science and fiction has led to a new understanding of the space-time continuum. While the physical space surrounding planet Earth was conceptualized ever more precisely, the encounter with the immensity of time has provoked less resonance. This article analyzes the temporal dimension of the Age of Space in three steps. First, it juxtaposes various ways of conceptualizing the so-called Space Age as a significant period in human history. Second, it examines orders of time inherent in West-European space thought, in particular the widespread appeal of time dilatation as seen in Eugen Sänger’s popular 1950s photon rocket scenario. Third, it charts the experience of time on board spaceships, as detailed in astronauts’ autobiographies. This article argues that the appeal of the Space Age lay not only in the promise of continued physical expansion but also in the total control over the fourth dimension envisioned for the future.

Dominic and Cymene marvel at the rise of transplanetary anthropology on this week’s podcast, as well as outer space films (and sexed up goblins). Then (16:08) we welcome the University of Virginia’s celestial Lisa Messeri to the... more

Dominic and Cymene marvel at the rise of transplanetary anthropology on this week’s podcast, as well as outer space films (and sexed up goblins). Then (16:08) we welcome the University of Virginia’s celestial Lisa Messeri to the conversation. A lively chat about her research with exoplanetary scientists follows. Lisa reminds us of the extraterrestrial roots of much climate science and explains why she thinks we now need to “un-earth” the Anthropocene. We talk through the connections between our terran conditions of environmental precarity and our renewed interest in other planets. We compare news coverage of the Standing Rock clearance and the Trappist-1 exoplanets and discuss why the latter seemed to get so much more press. We talk geos vs. bios in the imagination of outer space, Elon Musk and the New Space community, what it means for a planet to be habitable, and how the logic of settler colonialism infiltrates the idea of space frontiers. Lisa shares her hot takes on The Martian, why she thinks we’re seeing so many outer space movies right now, and why the future of humanity obviously depends on Matt Damon. We close on her book, Placing Outer Space: An Earthly Ethnography of Other Worlds (Duke UP, 2016) and why she thinks place-making is so important in the human engagement with outer space. Why do planets have to be round? Who was the star surprise guest at Lisa’s dissertation defense? Listen on and find out! PS Shouts out to Abby Spinak and the Rice Space Institute for making Lisa’s visit to Rice possible!

Bajo una aproximación que considera a la prensa como un agente en la producción y circulación de conocimiento científico, este artículo examina la divulgación de la ciencia espacial en los magazines chilenos Zig-Zag y Ercilla durante la... more

Bajo una aproximación que considera a la prensa como un agente en la producción y circulación de conocimiento científico, este artículo examina la divulgación de la ciencia espacial en los magazines chilenos Zig-Zag y Ercilla durante la década de 1950. En primer lugar, se analiza una controversia sobre discos voladores en la que se pone en discusión la autoridad de los expertos para explicar fenómenos espaciales. En segundo lugar, se observará cómo los magazines anticiparon e imaginaron la exploración espacial a mediados de la década. Finalmente, se examinará cómo los magazines aprovecharon el interés por el espacio exterior para divulgar la ciencia local y vincularla a un contexto internacional.

Space Diplomacy and defence go hand-in-hand. The inherently transnational character of space capabilities makes it a useful tool for wielding military, economic and political power in many more ways than one and across countries and... more

Space Diplomacy and defence go hand-in-hand. The inherently transnational character of space capabilities makes it a useful tool for wielding military, economic and political power in many more ways than one and across countries and continents. Satellite footprints cover large swathes unhindered by political boundaries and hence can be put to multifarious uses. The vast populations of the developing world have great use for space capabilities and hence instead of focussing only on their military uses as in case of the US, Russia and China, it makes enormous sense for India to expand its space capabilities to other developing nations in the world. This would be in keeping with the national and particularly the national leadership's vision of using satellites for leadership and development in the developing world.

A piece for Space + Anthropology on how spacefaring billionaires are motivated by a similar nostalgia to MAGA.

Promouvoir l’analyse de la manière dont l’espace est et a été appréhendé par différents groupes ou sociétés et constituer peu à peu une communauté de recherche autour de cet objet figurent parmi les objectifs principaux de ce carnet.... more

Promouvoir l’analyse de la manière dont l’espace est et a été appréhendé par différents groupes ou sociétés et constituer peu à peu une communauté de recherche autour de cet objet figurent parmi les objectifs principaux de ce carnet. Aussi il était naturel pour le premier entretien publié sur le blog de donner la parole à Alexander Geppert qui a, pendant plusieurs années, dirigé un groupe de recherche sur cette question bien précise, à la Freie Universität de Berlin. Les questions, préparées par Catherine Radtka pour Humanités spatiales, reviennent sur la genèse du projet et du groupe « The Future in the Stars », sur les travaux qui ont été réalisés dans son cadre, sur les approches mises en œuvre et leurs liens avec d’autres domaines historiographiques et, enfin, sur les perspectives de recherches qui se dégagent aujourd’hui. Nous laissons les questions et réponses en anglais, pour conserver la franchise des formulations d’Alexander Geppert. Nous ne doutons pas que nos lecteurs apprécieront et qu’ils retireront de cet échange, entre autres choses, une dose d’enthousiasme pour poursuivre leurs propres travaux !

For much of the twentieth century, studies on the history of the natural sciences in the Middle East have focused on the region’s pre-modern scientific heritage. Yet, increasingly, scholars have also investigated the role of science in... more

For much of the twentieth century, studies on the history of the natural sciences in the Middle East have focused on the region’s pre-modern scientific heritage. Yet, increasingly, scholars have also investigated the role of science in the modern Middle East. However, while these scholars have provided valuable insights into the social and political dimensions of science, they have focused on science in specific nation states, such as Iran. Little research exists on the transnational development of science in the modern Middle East, even though science has been one of the most transnational human activities. This paper responds to this lack of literature by investigating one of the most global fields of modern knowledge production: astronomy and space science. Astronomers from different nations have long co-operated in studying Earth’s “single sky.” At the same time, expensive space science ventures have long relied on contributions by multiple member states. This paper demonstrates the Arab contribution to these transnational ventures. I focus on the cases of Farouk El-Baz, the Egyptian head of NASA’s astronaut training during the Apollo program, and other Arab space scientists with transnational careers. Drawing on these cases, I argue that the Arab world has contributed to global science not just in pre-modern periods, but also in modern and contemporary times.

Der Weltraum als gedachter Raum ist ein Produkt des 20. Jahrhunderts. Von einer reinen Projektionsfläche und einem ursprünglich toten Ort – dem religiös konnotierten Jenseits – entwickelte er sich zu einem tiefgestaffelten, die Erde... more

Der Weltraum als gedachter Raum ist ein Produkt des 20. Jahrhunderts. Von einer reinen Projektionsfläche und einem ursprünglich toten Ort – dem religiös konnotierten Jenseits – entwickelte er sich zu einem tiefgestaffelten, die Erde umgebenden räumlichen Gebilde inklusive spezifischer Ortsmarkierungen. Indem der Mensch in den Weltraum ausgriff, eignete er sich seine Um-Welt an und gestaltete sie kurzerhand neu. Der Aufsatz skizziert die Rahmenbedingungen großstädtischer Astrokultur in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts und stellt das neue Konzept der 'lieux de l’avenir' vor.

This research project investigates staged events that explore and convey experiences of outer space and the cosmos.