scholarly journals Apparatuses of observation and occupation: Settler colonialism and space science in Hawai'i

2021 ◽  
pp. 026377582110423
Author(s):  
Katherine G Sammler ◽  
Casey R Lynch
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Object Relations ◽  
Space Exploration ◽  
Outer Space ◽  
Settler Colonialism ◽  
Space Science ◽  
Space Research ◽  
Scientific Objectivity ◽  
Subject Positions ◽  
Specific Subject

This paper examines two space science infrastructures in Hawai'i, the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) and the Hawai'i Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS). It considers how scientific observation and colonial occupation are co-constituted through the production of apparatuses – extensive material practices and arrangements that iteratively produce subject–object relations. By analyzing TMT and HI-SEAS as apparatuses, we show how both involve the active ordering of space, time, and matter in ways that are dependent upon existing settler colonial relations while enacting specific subject positions key to the projection of settler colonialism across space and time. TMT materializes the Archimedean point, or view-from-nowhere, on which Western scientific “objectivity” depends, while HI-SEAS works to produce ideal colonizer-subjectivities and orient their bodies to the spatialities of the colony. Engaging Native Hawai’ian, Indigenous, and allied anti-colonial critiques, we argue that social science of outer space research must critically address the colony, as its basic logics are foundational to the practices of contemporary space science and imaginaries of space exploration.

The Instrumental Value of Scientific Knowledge and Understanding and the Rationale for Space Science

2020 ◽  
pp. 89-121
Author(s):  
James S.J. Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Space Exploration ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Space Science ◽  
Space Research ◽  
Social Progress ◽  
Instrumental Value ◽  
Robotic Exploration ◽  
Scientific Exploration

This chapter provides a defense of the instrumental value of scientific knowledge and understanding as well as a defense of the use of public funds in support of scientific research, including space science. It motivates a more sophisticated understanding of the “spinoff” justification for space exploration by drawing on research in philosophy of science which connects social progress to scientific progress, and scientific progress to scientific exploration. This establishes the instrumental value of scientific (including space) exploration. It then uses a framework derived from Mark Brown and David Guston to argue that democratic states have obligations to provide wide-ranging and substantial support for scientific research, including space research. Finally, it provides an overview of various space research projects, identifying the ways they contribute to democratic governance. It also contains a discussion of the crewed vs. robotic exploration debate.

scholarly journals Geostationary Belt – State’s Territory or Province of Mankind?

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-178
Author(s):  
Rafał Kopeć
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Space Exploration ◽  
Outer Space ◽  
Geostationary Orbit ◽  
International Telecommunication Union ◽  
International Telecommunication ◽  
Space Law ◽  
Special Area ◽  
The Subject ◽  
State Of Affairs

Abstract The geostationary orbit is a special area in outer space. Because of its distinctive characteristics, it has constantly been the subject of economic and political desirability. Space powers, taking advantage of their technological superiority and rules applied by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) retained a privileged position. Developing countries, responding to this state of affairs, have taken a number of measures to improve their positions. Some of them posed a challenge to the main regulation of space law (Bogota declaration was an attempt to exercise a national sovereignty over the segments of the geostationary orbit), some are based on the use of the legal gaps in ITU regulations. Given these circumstances, the specific case of geostationary belt contributes to the debate on the regulations governing space exploration.

scholarly journals Space for Change: The ASAT Tests in Outer Space in Light of the UN Liability Convention

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-102
Author(s):  
Adam Strobeyko
Keyword(s):  
Space Exploration ◽  
Outer Space ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Special Care ◽  
Shared Environment ◽  
Conventional Weapons

As space exploration is gathering pace, special care must be attributed to preserving outer space as a shared environment that can be explored freely by humankind. Currently, there exists no comprehensive legal framework regulating the use of conventional weapons in outer space. This has been made evident by repeated tests of anti-satellite weapons (ASATs) which took place in the XXI century and produced massive amounts of debris, possibly interfering with the rights of other states to explore space freely. This article examines the rules provided by the UN Liability Convention and their application to ASAT tests in outer space. The author reviews academic suggestions in the field and concludes that a multilateral and comprehensive legal framework needs to be established in order to guarantee unrestrained exploration of space.

scholarly journals Future-Day Saints: Abrahamic Astronomy, Anthropological Futures, and Speculative Religion

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 612
Author(s):  
Jon Bialecki
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Outer Space ◽  
Speculative Fiction ◽  
Church Leaders ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Church

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, there is an intense interest in creating “speculative fiction”, including speculative fiction about outer space. This article ties this interest to a broader tradition of “speculative religion” by discussing the Mormon Transhumanist Association. An interest in outer space is linked to nineteenth and twentieth-century speculation by Mormon intellectuals and Church leaders regarding “Abrahamic Astronomy”. The article suggests that there is a Mormon view of the future as informed by a fractal or recursive past that social science in general, and anthropology in particular, could use in “thinking the future”.

scholarly journals Sensational Interfaces and the Aesthetics of Space Apps

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 440-450
Author(s):  
David Crouch ◽  
Katarina Damjanov
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Space Exploration ◽  
Outer Space ◽  
Scientific Data ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Global Media ◽  
Capitalist Production ◽  
Time Observation ◽  
A Site ◽  
Real Time Observation

Abstract As the momentum of space exploration unfolds, our planetary exterior is increasingly transformed into a site of capitalist production and destruction. Grounded within infrastructures, processes and practices of mediation, our technological acquisition of space is also entwined back into the ambits of global media cultures down on Earth. The currents of this enculturation are indexed by the upsurge and emerging variety of “space apps” which use techno-scientific data and creative visualisation to offer assorted digital experiences of outer space-from maps and tours of planets, stars and galaxies, to real-time observation of celestial events and phenomena. To provide some measure of this inclination, we consider the ways in which these apps sculpt our collective techno-aesthetic relations with extraplanetary space. Framing their digital renderings as the sensational interface of capitalism, we suggest that they offer a glimpse into the ongoing manipulations of economies of attention and the appropriations of affect that undergird its high-tech progress in the space age.

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