Geographies of Outer Space

Forum Progress in Human Geography 1–23 ª The Author(s) 2017 Geographies of outer space: Reprints and permission: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav Progress and new opportunities DOI: 10.1177/0309132517747727 journals.sagepub.com/home/phg Oliver Dunnett Queen’s University Belfast, UK Andrew S. Maclaren University of Aberdeen, UK Julie Klinger Boston University, USA K. Maria D. Lane University of New Mexico, USA Daniel Sage Loughborough University, UK Abstract Research into outer space has burgeoned in recent years, through the work of scholars in the social sciences, arts and humanities. Geographers have made a series of useful contributions to this emergent work, but scholarship remains fairly limited in comparison to other disciplinary fields. This forum explains the scholarly roots of these new geographies of outer space, considering why and how geographies of outer space could make further important contributions. The forum invites reflections from political, environmental, historical and cultural geographers to show how human geography can present future avenues to continued scholarship into outer space. Keywords culture, environment, geography, history, labour, outer space, politics I Introduction thereby opened up extra-terrestrial perspectives in contemporary studies of geographical repre- Human geographers have begun to re-engage sentations. A further significant intervention with outer space as an object of their research. Much of this work has drawn inspiration from a landmark paper by Denis Cosgrove (1994), which examined the Apollo astronaut Corresponding author: Oliver Dunnett, Department of Geography, School of photographs of the earth from space, and their Natural and Built Environment, Queen’s University significance in the genealogy of the global Belfast, University Road, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK. imagination in western culture. Cosgrove Email: [email protected] 2 Progress in Human Geography XX(X) was Fraser MacDonald’s (2007) paper in this new studies on outer space in history, sociology journal, which argued that outer space should and anthropology (Geppert, 2012; Dickens and no longer be seen as remote and detached from Ormrod, 2016; Messeri, 2016), there is a com- the everyday geographies of people’s lives, as it pelling need for human geographers to catch up has become instrumental to many modern tech- with this ‘turn to space’ and the diverse influ- nologies and forms of mobility. Such lines of ences outer space has had, and is having, on argument have echoed more recently, with Jason earth and its inhabitants. Beery (2016: 68) suggesting that geographers What form, then, might such new geogra- should ‘reject ...anxieties about engaging with phies of outer space take, and how might we outer space’, and grasp the opportunities therein. theorize engagements that have already started Indeed, outer space matters, and its engage- to emerge? One starting point would be to think ment through critical voices in the humanities through specific geographical terminologies and social sciences has become more important and how they might apply to studies of outer with the increasing presence of outer space tech- space. The most obvious connection, noted by nologies in people’s everyday lives (Johnson, MacDonald (2007), is the term ‘space’ itself, a 2016), the growing diversity of human activity homonym that denotes both the most widely- in outer space, with private companies adopted ‘unit of geography’ and also the cosmic described to be launching ‘a new space race’ void between planetary and other cosmic bodies, (Grady, 2017), and the imaginative configura- drawing on notions of absence, vacuity or noth- tions of outer space that continue to shape ingness. Space, however, is too vague a term for human understandings of the universe, influ- the immensity and diversity of the cosmic realm, enced by unprecedented developments in astro- and adopting more specific geographical terms physical science (NASA, 2017). With such as place, surface, environment, volume, tra- geography specifically meaning ‘earth writing’, jectory or landscape could open up the multipli- some may wonder why there is a need for geo- city of meanings behind these varied and distinct graphies of outer space. Yet outer space and extra-terrestrial spaces. This approach also gen- geography have historic connections, from the erates a whole range of outer-space-specific ter- ages of Classical and Medieval cosmography up minologies and nomenclatures as possible until Alexander Von Humboldt’s Cosmos objects of study. Thinking through the nuances (1849). We argue that outer space should be of of the ‘spaces of outer space’ through terms such pressing concern within contemporary human as extra-terrestrial or extra-global space, earth- geography given the increasing prominence of orbital space (involving polar, parabolic or outer space within culture and politics, and the geostationary trajectories), interplanetary space, need to fully contextualize this. Human geogra- exo-planetary space, interstellar or celestial phers are well-placed to draw on a breadth of space, the cosmos, or even the heavens, invokes conceptual developments from its range of sub- a variety of scales and understandings to help disciplinary perspectives, including an estab- unpick and focus in on particular objects of study. lished engagement with concepts of scale What these suggestions offer is a specific lexicon (Sheppard and McMaster, 2004), and a post- for geographers to take forward in future research modern cultural turn that has created the possi- to critically interpret these different spaces, think- bility for ‘an extra-terrestrial human geography’ ing beyond the simplistic binary separation of (Cosgrove, 2008: 47). With the rise of planetary ‘outer’ space from ‘terrestrial’ space. geomorphology in physical geography (Crad- Geographers’ limited involvement with outer dock, 2012) and interdisciplinary science space has occurred mostly through critical geo- (Mackwell et al., 2013), as well as significant politics, or ‘critical astropolitics’, interrogating Dunnett et al. 3 terrestrial power relations embedded in space- have understood off-world spaces in various flight industries (Warf, 2007; Collis, 2009; national, regional and local contexts. Thinking Beery, 2012), space-promoting organizations through the meaning of earth’s place in the cos- (MacDonald, 2007; Dunnett, 2017), and outer mos raises broader questions regarding the lim- space in popular culture (MacDonald, 2008). its of human influence in the solar system, and The significance of national space programmes the role of humanity in safeguarding environ- (Sage, 2014) or outer space cultures (Dunnett, mental futures in the long term. In the forum 2012) has also shown the entwined nature of contributions that follow, Julie Klinger and outer space with national identities and Maria Lane seek to address these issues by con- military-industrial complexes. Recent develop- figuring potential new geographies of nature- ments afford geographers further possibilities culture relations in outer space, through both for study, with newly-industrialized nations contemporary and historical research, looking becoming increasingly involved with space- at examples such as off-earth mining and the flight (Pace, 2015) and new private sector mapping of other planets. engagements with research, development and Part of MacDonald’s (2007) argument in pro- manufacturing disrupting Cold War-era con- moting the study of outer space was to draw cepts of nationalism in outer space. With exist- attention to the terrestrial geographies that are ing studies often focusing on the national and connected to the technologies and discourses of global politics of outer space, there has been a outer space. Others have shown how certain comparative lack of research on the localized places on earth, such as the Antarctic continent, political and economic geographies of produc- mountains and deserts, have been seen as tion embedded in the newly-emergent space proxies of extra-terrestrial spaces (Collis, industries. In this forum, Daniel Sage looks to 2016; Lane, 2008; Dittmer, 2007). This work address this shortfall by articulating geometries makes significant progress in understanding of power and dispossession inherent in the geographies of outer space through earthly ana- labour geographies of upcoming space projects logy. There is, however, further scope for stud- that operate in contrast to the utopian visions of ies that investigate the more accessible and ‘NewSpace’ magnates such as Elon Musk. everyday spaces through which people derive Cosgrove’s landmark paper (1994) helped meaning from outer space. In the penultimate establish the significance of space imagery in section of this forum, Oliver Dunnett examines engendering a sense of environmental unity in how landscapes of outer space have been the earth. Subsequent studies have expanded the articulated through popular representations concept of ‘environment’ beyond earthly limits, andexperience,seekingalsotoconfigurethe considering, for example, representations of the moral geographies of outer space in popular planet Mars in the early and late 20th century understandings. Finally, Andrew Maclaren (Lane, 2011; Dittmer, 2007). Researchers have examines the concept of affective nationalism also examined how earth-orbital imagery, rock- in the contemporary context of NASA space etry and planetary visualization have helped to shuttle exhibits in various museum spaces configure a sense of frontier

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