Geography in Outer Space
Image credit: [https://www.nyas.org/ebriefings/2021/a-closer-look-at-the-next-moon-landing/]
In the February 2022 Guest Blog, Dan Hall from the School of Geography, University of Oxford, looked at the Geography of Outer Space.
Should Geographers care about outer space? The Greek roots of the name Geography suggests our focus should be on firm ground – geo- meaning Earth and -graphy, from -graphia, meaning writing or describing.
Yet contemporary Geography does far more than just describe the ground beneath our feet – it studies human societies, observes species loss and migration, and models our changing climate, plus much more. So, should it also be concerned with what happens far above, beyond Earth’s atmosphere? I believe that the answer is firmly yes.
On a fundamental level, outer space has a profound impact on our everyday lives, even if you don’t realise it – satellite communications form the basis for so much of modern life in the Global North, responsible for key activities such as GPS navigation, weather and climate monitoring, and telecommunication connections. Indeed, a lot of geographical research relies on remote sensing by satellites, for example, particularly climate science. This means that what happens in space, impacts life down on Earth.
Image credit: National Geographic - https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/where-is-the-edge-of-space-and-what-is-the-karman-line
We can see these impacts in more physical ways, too. For example, launching satellites into space requires big rockets and huge areas of land to launch them from, and these launches can disperse all kinds of pollutants into the surrounding air. As such, outer space activities have a direct environmental impact on Earthly landscapes. What’s more, we have an impact on outer space environments too, as our accumulating satellites and orbital junk creates a hazardous layer of litter around the planet.
[Image credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacecraft]
A keen geographer can also identify some more theoretical and political issues driven by outer space, too. Having a space programme and launching satellites requires a huge amount of money, infrastructure, and scientific knowledge, meaning that only a handful of the richest, biggest countries actually have the capacity to leave the Earth’s orbit themselves. Other countries must rely on the systems and services provided by the big space powers, and so there is an imbalance of power between the space haves and have-nots.
There is also the question of who ‘owns’ outer space and things beyond Earth, such as the Moon, other planets, and asteroids. Treaties such as the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (OST) declared that outer space, and everything beyond the Earth, could not be owned by any one nation state and should be used ‘for the good of all mankind’, making it a ‘global commons’ like the high seas, ocean floor, and Antarctica. This is quite a radical legal status – not many things in the modern world are legally un-ownable and to be used for the benefit of all humanity! Of course, this did not stop the first humans on the Moon planting the flag of the USA there in 1969 as show of status – the Cold War space race was particularly bound up with national prestige and the idea of being a ‘superpower’.
[Image credit: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-19/moon-landing-anniversary-astronauts-turned-religion-spirituality/11301606]
However, these treaties were created to prevent conflict between nation-states, namely the USA and USSR, during the Cold War space race. The advent of privately-owned space companies such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin throw up new questions for humanity’s relationship with the cosmos. Indeed, many in this ‘New Space’ commercial sector would be keen to rip up the OST to ensure their expensive space exploration can provide them with profits.
These space companies also aim to radically change our relationship with the stars – by colonising other planets. Elon Musk’s desire to establish permanent human settlements on Mars and beyond and make humanity a ‘multiplanetary civilisation’ is one which is currently under-studied by Geographers but should be of interest – how would these settlements affect the Martian environment? Should we care as much about the environment of Mars as we do with Earth – does it matter if we pollute there? How would the politics and governance of a human settlement on another planet work? And what would our relationship be with these other humans who would live so incredibly far away?
[Image source: https://www.space.com/spacex-launch-astronauts-mars-2024]
Such questions are especially important in the context of climate change; the space entrepreneurs often talk about the need to establish colonies away from Earth due to the catastrophic risks posed by climate change, among other things. Yet, these super-billionaires often have the most responsibility for climate change and the money to help solve it – so are space colonies just a way for the super-rich to escape their responsibilities on Earth while leaving the rest of us to face the consequences? Plus, arguments for ‘terraforming’ Mars, which involves using technology to permanently alter the planet’s climate to make it more liveable for humans, has interesting parallels to the idea of ‘geoengineering’ the Earth’s climate to tackle climate change.
Above all, considering the geographies of outer space allows you to think about what you think Geography really is, and what it should be. Is it the study of environments, whether human or natural? If so, what counts as an environment – does it have to be on Earth? Or perhaps you see Geography as the study of the relationships between human and natural systems over different spatial scales – in which case, Geography should care about outer space, but where does its remit stop? Earth’s orbit, the Moon, Mars, our solar system, or beyond?
These questions do not have easy answers, and are likely to be debated by academic Geographers with increasing intensity, but I hope that this has piqued your curiosity in the geographies of outer space!
Useful references and further reading:
‘Where, exactly, is the edge of space? It depends on who you ask.’ National Geographic: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/where-is-the-edge-of-space-and-what-is-the-karman-line
‘Human Geographies of Outer Space’, by Daniel Sage and Andrew Maclaren: https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199874002/obo-9780199874002-0229.xml
‘The Geography of Space Exploration: It’s Always Political’, by Danny Bednar: https://danny-bednar.medium.com/space-exploration-its-always-political-and-its-always-about-geography-8a4cf3a8d3ca
‘Mars Is a Hellhole’, by Shannon Stirone: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/02/mars-is-no-earth/618133/
The JustSpace Alliance: https://justspacealliance.org/
‘The billionaire space race reflects a colonial mindset that fails to imagine a different world’, by Ted McCormick: https://theconversation.com/the-billionaire-space-race-reflects-a-colonial-mindset-that-fails-to-imagine-a-different-world-165235
‘Billionaire capitalists are designing humanity's future. Don't let them’ https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/05/jeff-bezos-elon-musk-spacex-blue-origin
About the author
Dan Hall holds a BA Geography from the University of Oxford and an MSc in Environment, Politics & Society from UCL. His postgraduate dissertation research focused on the geographies of outer space, and how the private space companies SpaceX and Blue Origin use environmental and climate-related arguments and imagery to frame their justifications for space exploration and colonisation. He is now Access, Outreach & Internships Officer at the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford.
You can contact Dan to ask about studying Geography at Oxford (https://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/), or just to chat Geography, via Twitter @Dan_Hall97 or by emailing access-outreach@ouce.ox.ac.uk.