Arts and humanities have a role in understanding space exploration | Letters

Letter: Prof Abbie Garrington reflects on an interview with the physicist Laura Grego about the battle for our skies

Where are the arts and humanities in current debates about space research? The physicist Laura Grego tells us we “have to be aware of what is happening in space”, that we should probe Elon Musk’s potential “appropriation” of space via satellite, and that our spacefaring era raises questions about our stewardship of the Earth for future generations, and the significance of human culture (‘Most people don’t know we’ve set up a doomsday system’: physicist Laura Grego on satellites, nuclear weapons and the battle for our skies, 20 July).

Meanwhile, your interviewer Aida Edemariam notes both the Artemis mission’s potential to inspire, and the relegation of most of us to an audience agog, with no say in civilisational decisions about major space missions.

The sciences cannot tackle these matters alone. Successive UK governments have prioritised Stem subjects, while our forthcoming national space strategy will focus on economic growth and national security, so major leaps in technologies of exploration and surveillance come to the fore in what is effectively a second space race. Yet listening to Grego, it’s clear we also need new collaborative structures, theories of jurisdiction and laws; new philosophies of the human, the unique status of human culture, and interplanetary environmental responsibility; and a sharp eye on the history of human hubris.

Durham University’s Space Research Centre, and the new Leverhulme Centre for Humanity and Space at the University of Leicester, might show us the way. Addressing arts and humanities layoffs at our universities (at Exeter and Edinburgh most recently), we rightly worry about what the British Academy calls “cold spots” around the UK where students will miss out on enriching subjects.

We should also be talking about these cuts as a national diminishment of subjects which, among many other functions, are essential to the UK’s flourishing in a new phase of space exploration.
Prof Abbie Garrington
University of Durham

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