Transplanetary Ecologies Reading Group

Continuous human presence in Low Earth Orbit, increasing expansion of techno-scientific infrastructures beyond Earth, and the extractivist ambitions of the commercial 'New Space' sector call for a reconsideration of the conventional analytical frameworks used to describe emergent (extra)terrestrial political, ecological, and social processes. The Transplanetary Ecologies reading group will interrogate this emerging paradigm, asking questions such as: how do the various infrastructures of space science exact their own ecological tolls? How do contemporary configurations of (neo)colonial power, engendered by progress-oriented visions of contemporary space industries, shape our understanding of extraterrestrial environments? What forms of (trans)planetary ecologies are needed to account for the imaginaries, materialities and entanglements brought about by space science? What do increasing calls for space sustainability mean in practice? 

Over the academic year 2023/2024 we will gather to discuss these questions and more. Our reading group is open to all, irrespective of your level of space related knowledge!

Our next session will take place on zoom on Wednesday, 27th March at 4pm GTM/UTC. Our text this month will be “Atomic Visions from Outer Space: The Tunguska Nuclear Hypothesis in Soviet Technological Imagination” by Andy Bruno.

Bruno’s article is available online. If you have difficulty finding it please email the reading group conveners Makar: makar.tereshin.21@ucl.ac.uk and Rachel: rachel.hill.21@ucl.ac.uk Please also email us for zoom link