Cultural WG webinar – Sci-Fi Moon Visions

Free registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_bQIMo87bRUOODuFqWzEaqg

AGENDA

Remo Rapetti: Introduction

Christopher Cokinos: Long Before Rockets: Imagination’s Voyages to the Moon

“As we return to the Moon with Artemis, we should return to the many imaginary voyages we’ve taken to the Moon, from Chinese folk tales to pioneering science fiction. These leaps of creative vision are more than nostalgic trifles. They tell us about ourselves and our attitudes toward places we explore and might settle. Imagination’s voyages to the Moon are one foundation for policy. They give us ethical trajectories to consider as competing interests aim for the ice-rich lunar south pole. Plus, some of them are great fun.”

Erika Nesvold: Today’s Lunar Stories, Tomorrow’s Lunar Challenges

“Science fiction uses unearthly settings to explore humanity’s greatest fears and propose dreams for our future. Today’s stories set on the Moon are no exception: lunar science fiction films, television shows, novels, and short stories imagine the Moon as a threat, a resource, or a home for humans in the not-so-distant future. Most frequently, these stories portray the Moon as an extension of the Earth, a secondary host to humanity’s ongoing struggles and conflicts. What cautionary tales can we find in these lunar stories, and how can we apply their lessons to urgent questions of space policy as we prepare to turn science fiction into reality in the comingdecades?”

Lisa Pettibone: Comments and questions

Christopher Cokinos is the author or coeditor of several books, including The Fallen Sky: An Intimate History of Shooting Stars, Hope Is the Things with Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds, and Beyond Earth’s Edge: The Poetry of Spaceflight. His new book —Still as Bright: An Illuminating History of the Moon from Antiquity to Tomorrow–came out in 2024  and has garnered praise from Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, Sky & Telescope and the Toronto Globe & Mail. He is the winner of awards and fellowships from, among others, New American Press, the Whiting Foundation, the Rachel Carson Center in Munich, and the National Science Foundation. His poems, articles, and essays have appeared in such venues as Scientific American, High Country News, Astronomy, Discover.com, and the Los Angeles Times. Having taught literature, writing, and science communication for more than three decades at three universities, he again lives and writes in Utah.

Erika Nesvold is an astrophysicist who has worked as a researcher at NASA Goddard and the Carnegie Institution for Science. She is a developer for Universe Sandbox, a physics-based space simulator; cofounder of the nonprofit organization the JustSpace Alliance; and the creator and host of the podcast Making New Worlds. She is also the author of Off-Earth: Ethical Questions and Quandaries for Living in Outer Space and co-editor of Reclaiming Space: Progressive and Multicultural Visions of Space Exploration.

.