Cultural WG webinar: Spirituality and the Moon

The spiritual needs of space enthusiasts and future Moon workers and settlers need to be addressed as the settlement of the Moon advances. This webinar will explore possible whys and hows.

Agenda:

1. Introduction – Remo Rapetti
2. Futurist Moonlight Meditations – Giulio Prisco
3. Sacred space – Catherine Newell
4. Peak of Eternal Light – Jorge Mañes Rubio
5. Q&A session – Arthur Woods

Giulio Prisco is a former space engineer and senior manager at European space administrations. In his book “Futurist spaceflight meditations” (2021), Prisco covers spaceflight and human expansion into space, with a special emphasis on cultural and spiritual aspects. Prisco’s thesis is that human expansion into the solar system, starting with outposts on the surface of the Moon and in cislunar space, is a cornerstone of emerging future spirituality. This new spirituality will, in turn, inform human expansion toward the stars.

Catherine Newell is a scholar of religion and science who is particularly interested in the intersections of science, technology, culture, and spirituality. In her book “Destined for the Stars: Faith, the Future, and the Final Frontier,” Newell traces the cultural and spiritual roots of US space exploration programs and argues that they were mainly inspired by a technological and scientific faith that awoke a deep-seated belief in a sense of divine destiny to reach the heavens.

Jorge Mañes Rubio is an artist whose works rethink humanity’s relationship with the universe and all the beings that live in it. As Artist in Residence at the Advanced Concepts Team ESA, Rubio designed a Moon Temple for a future lunar settlement in Shackleton Crater. The Moon Temple wouldn’t be associated with any specific religion. On the contrary, it would be open to everyone, in particular to the fast-growing category of people who describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious.”