Paper short abstract:

Following simulations of the technological and cultural artefact ‘spacesuit’, I will draw from document and interview data gathered at the Austrian Space Forum as well as analyse Science Fiction literature to uncover technoscientific and sociotechnical imaginaries of human missions to Mars.

Paper long abstract:

By following the spacesuit – a technological and cultural artefact – through real-world and fictional simulations, I want to show what kind of imaginaries about humans on Mars are (co-)produced. Firstly, documents and interviews from the Austrian Space Forum (OeWF), an organisation that builds spacesuit simulators and conducts simulated Mars missions, will give insights into what kind of imaginaries (i) are generally shared at the OeWF, and (ii) guide the organisational and material infrastructures of their simulated Mars missions. Secondly, analysing selected Science Fiction (SF) novels – literature being a long-standing venue for thought experiments and simulation – will reveal extrapolated imaginings of future human missions to Mars. In SF, we can experience sociotechnical imaginaries which develop when real-world technological and scientific limitations do not apply. Through this approach of symmetrically considering fact and fiction, I will show how technoscientific and sociotechnical imaginaries of humans on Mars echo through one “social ‘spacesuit’ arena” (cf. Clarke et al. 2018). I will build on former STS work regarding outer space imaginaries (e.g., Tutton 2018, 2021) as well as earthly outer space exploration sites and Science Fiction (Messeri 2016, Vertesi 2019). In today’s new space race, which is dominated by the perspectives of powerful actors like space agencies and billionaires, I seek to shift the angle to less obvious sites like a small NPO and popular fiction. Both are rehearsing the future of humans in outer space, thus generating data for, and contributing imaginings to our shared imaginaries of becoming a spacefaring civilisation.