Feminismos 22
ANIMALS IN (NEW) SPACE: CHIMPONAUTS, COSMODOGS, AND BIOSPHERE II GRETA GAARD University of Wisconsin, River Falls Recibido: 19/02/2013 Aceptado: 09/10/2013 Abstract Like many baby-boomers, I grew up with visuals of chimpanzees being shot up into space as part of NASA’s program for space exploration; I read about Laika, the Russian dog who perished on her first space mission, involuntarily recruited from the streets of Moscow where she had lived as a stray. Biosphere II—the failed attempt to re-create earth’s ecosystems in an enclosure outside of Tucson, Arizona—similarly instrumen- talized animals, this time for food, as part of a larger project investigating the possibil- ities of human life beyond earth. Now, NewSpace entrepreneurs pursue techno-solu- tions and space escapes for elites seeking adventurous enclosures beyond earth’s climate-changing surface. An ecofeminist perspective enriches our understanding of space exploration ideology by examining how cultural narratives of gender, species, and culture play out both here on earth and beyond our biosphere. Interrogating these techno-scientific pursuits in outer space augments our understanding of con- temporary environmental problems such as climate change, environmental justice, and human-animal relations. Key-words: ecofeminism, animals, gender, climate change, environmental justice, hu- man-animal relations. Laika, Biosphere II. Resumen Como muchas de las personas nacidas durante la posguerra, crecí con imágenes de chimpancés catapultados al espacio como parte del programa de la NASA para la ex- ploración espacial; también había leído acerca de Laika, la perra rusa que murió en su primera misión espacial, involuntariamente reclutada en las calles de Moscú, donde había vivido como un perro callejero.
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