CHALLENGE

Each civilisation leap starts with a vision and ends with a heritage passed forward to the next generations. Think of the industrial revolution and the impact it had on the look of our cities, environment’s condition, societal structure, work paradigms and material culture for many years that followed. On Earth, space exploration has already contributed to new technological solutions, business models or trends in culture, but its legacy expands also beyond our planet as we are – just starting – to leave our trace in outer space in the form of technical artifacts from past missions, interference in celestial bodies’ landscapes, space debris or the very first footprints, literally.

Human presence in space is a story. One about curiosity, exploration and dreaming but also power imbalances and colonization of extraterrestrial areas. Imagine that you are looking at our journey to space through the eyes of your grand-grand-grandchild (who might already be living on the Moon!): what have we as humankind left behind and how should it be managed? What opportunities have we used and what challenges have our footprint evoked?

This thematic area invites you to critically engage with the notion of space heritage in order to create bold and novel narratives related to the legacy of human practices in space with a particular focus on their environmental, cultural, political and social impact.