Science in space vs space science: The European utilisation of spacelab∗

Abstract

Spacelab is the conventional name given to a manned laboratory to be carried onboard NASA's Space Shuttle, which was built in Europe under the aegis of the European Space Agency (ESA). This paper deals with the initiatives undertaken in Europe to establish a utilisation programme for Spacelab, in particular for its first flight, planned as a joint ESA/NASA demonstration mission. Two main factors will be discussed, which prevented ESA from establishing a sizeable Spacelab utilisation effort. Firstly, owing to the cost escalation of the Spacelab development programme and to NASA's charging policy for access to the Shuttle system, which did not foressee any preferential treatment to European users, most ESA member states were reluctant to commit funds in support of a long term experimental programme with the new space facility. Secondly, in a situation characterized by strict budgetary constraints, the established European space science community strongly opposed the inclusion of the new research fields opened up by Spacelab (e.g. life and material sciences in micro‐gravity condition) within the framework of ESA's scientific programme.     

Science,geography, and nation: the global creation of Thumba

Abstract

The origins of the Indian space program are typically traced back to the founding of a rocket launch base in Thumba in the state of Kerala in India in the 1960s. In creating infrastructure at Thumba, Indian scientific elites used geography as an instrument to create a vast international network of scientific and political actors committed to the science that was possible within India, particularly cosmic ray studies. They were drawing on a long tradition of linking geography to science redolent of the colonial era but were inspired by their newly constituted political imaginary of independent India as a place where science, geography, and nation were perfectly mapped on to each other. NASA’s help was crucial in this regard, enabled as a tool in Cold War high politics, as American technocrats sought to steer India towards the West, while India itself was keenly aware of a more proximate phenomenon, Pakistan’s own burgeoning efforts to do the same. Concerned about domestic opprobrium to large Indian investments in space technology, Indian and American actors shielded the Thumba project from critique by installing it under the umbrella of the international order, in this case the United Nations. This internationalism was complemented by a deep and firm belief in the universalism of modern science as a portable instrument, capable of improving the social order anywhere, regardless of political or social context.     

In the Shadow of the Moon: A Challenging Journey to Tranquility, 1965-1969

French and Burgess have added yet another book to the enormousliterature on the Space Race. Based partly on oral history interviewsand partly on written and e-mailed statements and other documents,In the Shadow of the Moon focuses on the American side of thesecond half of the Space Race. (French and Burgess dealt withthe first half of the Space Race in a previous work, Into thatSilent Sea.) Between March 1965 and July 1969, the U.S. launched fifteenmanned space missions. In four years and four months, NASA wentfrom     

Editorial

Abstract

Global science will benefit from better 'international market places' in which potential participants in international scientific cooperation can gather, trade information, and do business, should they choose. Problems with projects such as particle accelerators and space stations underscore the timeliness of institutional innovation. Changes should occur in both non-governmental infrastructure, which brings together the people with the ideas, and intergovernmental mechanisms, which convene people who control financial resources. A major international commission on international institutions for cooperation in scientific research should be formed to assess needs and to propose and build support for more efficient, capable, and reliable mechanisms.     

From Science to Religion: Justifying French Pacific Voyaging and Expansion in the Period of the Restoration and the July Monarchy

Abstract

What explains the generous state sponsorship of the French Pacific voyages of scientific exploration in the period of the Restoration and the July Monarchy, and what links did these voyages have with the beginnings of a French Pacific empire from 1842? While it is argued that the early voyages owed much to state advancement of science, this goal receded as a reviving France became increasingly imperial minded. In justifying imperial expansion into the Pacific, the French monarchy turned increasingly to another source of national identity and global influence: the activities of French missionaries. Though the promotion of French missions did not constitute a primary goal of French Pacific expeditions, their reports helped to strengthen the alliance between French missions and an increasingly expansionist state. Ironically it was the voyagers’ attention to religion rather than science that was to be more directly linked with the foundations of a French Pacific empire.     

Museum Collections and Archaic Era Vertebrate Faunal Remains from Cuba

ABSTRACT

Museum collections are an underutilised source of environmental archaeological data. Curated collections often contain faunal and floral remains that can be analysed using new methods and to address various research questions. For example, the broad patterns of Archaic or preceramic subsistence adaptations are not well known for the Caribbean region, and for Cuba in particular, due to the ecological variability among the islands and limited, quantified faunal data from radiocarbon-dated sites. To address these issues, we present quantified vertebrate faunal data and new radiocarbon dates from museum-curated collections from three Cuban sites. Las Obas, La Vega del Palmar, and Los Caracoles are Archaic, dating between roughly 350 BC to AD 630, although Vega del Palmar contains Pre-Arawak Pottery Horizon ceramics. The three assemblages include a diversity of taxa from several habitats, including various species of hutia (Capromyidae). The taxonomy of these rodents varies among the sites as do the proportions of other taxa. In addition to abundant hutia, the sites' occupants exploited an array of fish, birds, reptiles and other mammals, including manatee. We compare the sites faunal assemblages and discuss their ecological significance as well as their place in Cuban prehistory.     

Scientific Exploration of the Moon

Abstract

The exploration of the Moon has involved a highly successful interdisciplinary approach to solving a number of scientific problems. It has required the interactions of astronomers to classify surface features; cartographers to map interesting areas; geologists to unravel the history of the lunar crust; geochemists to decipher its chemical makeup; geophysicists to establish its structure; physicists to study the environment; and mathematician to work with engineers on optimizing the delivery to and from the Moon of exploration tools. Although, to date, the harvest of lunar science has not answered all the questions posed, it has already given us a much better understanding of the Moon and its history. Additionally, the lessons learned from this endeavor have been applied successfully to planetary missions. The scientific exploration of the Moon has not ended; it continues to this day and plans are being formulated for future lunar missions.     

Cartography,geographic information,and public policy

Abstract

Cartography is as much a policy science as it is a graphic art and science. The inevitable demise of the paper map as the principal medium of geographic communication and the increasing concentration of mapping activities and geographic data base development in large public‐sector agencies argue in favour of replacing the current emphasis on map production with one involving policy. A focus on mapping policy will reverse the unfortunate split between cartography and geography.     

French military officers and the mapping of West Africa: the case of Captain Brosselard-Faidherbe

Through the study of projects conceived to shape colonial space, this article aims to reconsider the motives and means of French colonial expansion in West Africa in the 1880s and 1890s. The Plan Faidherbe, designed by the Governor of Senegal in the 1860s, outlined a plan for eastward development, including a road and rail link between the Senegal and the Niger Rivers (and beyond, between Algeria and Sudan). The implementation of these routes of penetration called for a number of military-led topographic missions. The study of these missions and of the maps that were produced at the time reveal how such projects and their implementation were mediated by both cartographic and field practices. The case of Captain Henry Brosselard (1855-93), General Faidherbe’s son-in-law, is an interesting example because of the diversity of the missions he led and the extent of territory which he traversed and mapped. This case also shows how, in the course of a career, an officer could assume several different functions and come to conceive the process of building colonial territory from different perspectives. This paper questions a common view of the military as having a purely strategic vision of space as a field of conquest, a view which reserves a more development-oriented outlook for civil administrators and the business community. Indeed, Brosselard’s varied career somewhat blurs the conventional divide between civilians and soldiers, requiring us to reconsider accepted ways of categorising colonial actors.     

Mapping the audit traces of interdisciplinary collaboration: bridging and blending between choreography and cognitive science

ABSTRACT

Two long-term sci–art research projects are described and positioned in the broader conceptual landscape of interdisciplinary collaboration. Both projects were aimed at understanding and augmenting choreographic decision-making and both were grounded in research conducted within a leading contemporary dance company. In each case, the work drew upon methods and theory from the cognitive sciences, and both had a direct impact on the way in which the company made new work. In the synthesis presented here the concept of an audit trace is introduced. Audit traces identify how specific classes of knowledge are used and transformed not only within the arts or sciences but also when arts practice is informed by science or when arts practice informs science.     

A history of NASA remote sensing contributions to archaeology

During its long history of developing and deploying remote sensing instruments, NASA has provided scientific data that have benefitted a variety of scientific applications among them archaeology. Multispectral and hyperspectral instruments mounted on orbiting and sub-orbital platforms have provided new and important information for the discovery, delineation and analysis of archaeological sites worldwide. Since the early 1970s, several of the ten NASA centers have collaborated with archaeologists to refine and validate the use of active and passive remote sensing for archaeological use. The Stennis Space Center (SSC), located in Mississippi USA has been the NASA leader in archaeological research. Together with colleagues from Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), SSC scientists have provided the archaeological community with useful images and sophisticated processing that have pushed the technological frontiers of archaeological research and applications. Successful projects include identifying prehistoric roads in Chaco canyon, identifying sites from the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery exploration, and assessing prehistoric settlement patterns in southeast Louisiana. The Scientific Data Purchase (SDP) stimulated commercial companies to collect archaeological data. At present, NASA formally solicits “space archaeology” proposals through its Earth Science Directorate and continues to assist archaeologists and cultural resource managers in doing their work more efficiently and effectively. This paper focuses on passive remote sensing and does not consider the significant contributions made by NASA active sensors. Hyperspectral data offers new opportunities for future archaeological discoveries.     

Archaeology,assistance, and aggression along the Euphrates: reflections from Raqqa

ABSTRACT

This paper traces the cultural missions and salvage archaeology programs along the Euphrates River around Raqqa from the 1950s onwards. We suggest that the varied investments from international expeditions, conservation programs, and technical assistance in Syria have an important, untold history that is relevant to recent developments and conflicts in northern Syria. We explore the intersecting practices of archaeology and assistance, illuminated by archives drawn from international agencies such as UNESCO, as well as companies, consultants, bureaucrats, and archaeologists. Our focus is upon foreign intervention around imperiled heritage, considering not only internal politics but also UNESCO’s 1960s shift from fully funded campaigns to global appeals reliant on foreign governments, corporations, and universities. The outsourcing of salvage allowed specific patrons – national and international – to privilege particular pasts; and it is these histories and legacies that further require us to reassess the place of Raqqa in the current civil war.     

When Natural met Social: A Review of Collaboration between the Natural and Social Sciences

Abstract

This paper investigates the opportunities for further collaboration between the natural and social sciences. From 81 systematically identified and reviewed papers published in scientific journals, it became clear that complex situations that depend on human behaviour as well as natural processes require natural–social science collaboration. The creation of a community of collaborative natural–social science research, that learns from and can contribute to best practice across the sciences, is advocated to support natural– social science collaboration. Across disciplines, it became clear that such a community should deal with (1) difference between paradigms in the current sciences; (2) creation of skills and competences of the involved scientists; (3) scarcity of institutions sympathetic to collaborative research; and (4) the internal organization of collaborative projects.     

The Egyptian “book of the two ways”

Abstract

Science and cartography have had an intimate history which has not been simply the creation of ever more accurate scientific maps but one in which science, cartography and the state have co‐produced the knowledge space that provides the conditions for the possibility of modern science and cartography. The central cartographic process is the assemblage of local knowledges and, as such, is a particular form of the assembly processes fundamental to science. The first attempts by the state to create a space within which to assemble cartographic knowledge were at the Casa da Mina and the Casa de la Contratación, and hence they can be described as the first scientific institutions in Europe. Their failure to create a knowledge space can be attributed to the nature of the portolan charts. The triangulation of France and the linking of the Greenwich and Paris Observatories established the kind of knowledge space that now constitutes the dominant form within which modem science and cartography are produced. However, resistance to the hegemony of modern scientific knowledge space remains possible through finding alternative ways of assembling local knowledge.     

Letter to the Editor

Abstract

The last decade has seen an increasing awareness of the global impacts on our environment of modern technological civilization. To understand and deal with these impacts, we need to develop a science of the biosphere – a science that views life on the Earth from a planetary perspective. Recent scientific and technical advances make this science possible now. These advances include the development and testing of satellite remote sensing of Earth resources; advances in computer-based data acquisition, storage, analysis and dissemination; development of interdisciplinary efforts among scientists who recognize the need for this science; and the development of mathematical theory and computer simulation methods appropriate for the study of the biosphere. This review describes the basic needs for this new science and the advances which make the science possible.     

"We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming": NASA, Oral History,and the Contemporary Past

Over the forty-five years since its creation, NASA has completedliterally thousands of oral histories with people involved inthe agency and its programs. These include formal oral historiesthat collect information on the career of the individual, andshorter oral histories focusing on specific activities. Whilemany were done by scholars working on book projects there havebeen many, and increasingly so in recent years, completed tocapture the recollections of space scientists and engineerswithout a larger project envisioned. This presents a major resourcefor understanding the history of the U.S. space program.Thisarticle discusses the nature and extent of the oral historycollection at NASA, the processes in place for the colRoger     

The Suez Canal Revisited Ferdinand de Lesseps: The Genesis and Nurturing of Macroengineering Projects for the Next Century

Abstract

In commemoration of the centenary of Ferdinand de Lesseps' death on 7 December 1894, an expanded version of the 1993 MIT BruneI Lecture delivered by Jean-Paul Calon is here reproduced. The benefits that humanity has derived from innovative large scale projects such as the Suez Canal – the product of Lesseps' imagination and perseverance – are affirmed and the technological progress born out of this massive constructional effort is reviewed. Finally, a plea is made for a more visionary and enlightened outlook among contemporary engineers in the light of several macroengineering projects that are ripe for development and exploitation.     

The Arizona community data set: a long‐term project for education and research in economic geography

Abstract

The teaching of economic geography has received considerable attention in the literature over the last three years. This paper contributes to the debate by illustrating and analyzing a project based at the University of Arizona, the Arizona Community Data Set (ACDS). The ACDS is a long‐term field‐project that has given students the opportunity to go in the field to collect and analyze regional economic data and to apply theory and techniques learned in the classroom. This unique data set has yielded additional benefits in the area of basic research. It is argued that projects such as the ACDS complement some of the theoretical and analytical curriculum developed and recently published by other instructors in economic geography. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that some of the limitations commonly associated with field projects, especially the cost, can partly be overcome through sponsorship by community agencies.