Week 9: Space + Art

This week, we concluded the quarter’s topics with a discussion about space and art. It’s no surprise to me that there is much space-related art, as I grew up watching interplanetary TV shows and movies. However, I didn’t before appreciate how much this space-art has inspired space-science. For example, I didn’t know that Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a Russian schoolteacher, was the first to describe an extraterrestrial space station, which was later picked up by Russian engineer Yuri Artsutanov, American oceanographer John Isaacs, and researcher Jerome Pearson, all at different times.

Beyond the Planet Earth, Tsiolkovsky’s 1920 novel in which he describes the space station.

Furthermore, art continues to have the opportunity to inspire space-travel. Arthur C. Clarke’s concept of the space elevator, from his 1979 novel The Fountains of Paradise, was explored in depth 21 years later by NASA scientist David Smitherman. Given the acceleration of technological innovation, I wouldn’t be surprised if my children saw a space-elevator in their lifetime.

The front-page picture from Smitherman’s publication Space Elevators: An Advanced Earth-Space Infrastructure for the New Millennium.

I also didn’t know the extent to which politics influenced space-exploration. Although I was aware that the Cold War played some part in the 1960’s global space-race, I didn’t realize that it was likely the primary factor. I wonder whether, had such unfortunate events not taken place, we would have explored space as soon as we did. I also predict that politics will continue to have an effect on space-technology, and vice versa. As private businesses start to venture into space, we will likely need to regulate their activities, like the safety of passengers and companies’ permissions to mine resources.

SpaceX, a private space-travel company, first launched the Falcon 1 more than 15 years ago.

ARCTIC PERSPECTIVE INITIATIVE, arcticperspective.org/.

“CODED UTOPIA.” Continental Drift, 18 May 2009, brianholmes.wordpress.com/2007/03/27/coded-utopia/.

“Falcon 1.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 26 May 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_1.

Leonardo Space Art Project Visioneers, spaceart.org/leonardo/vision.html.

Smitherman, David V. “Space Elevators: An Advanced Earth-Space Infrastructure for the New Millennium.” Aug. 2000.

Space Elevators Page of STAR, Inc, www.star-tech-inc.com/spaceelevator.html.

TSolkovskiĭ K., and Kenneth Syers. “Beyond the Planet Earth.” Amazon, Pergamon Press, 1960, www.amazon.com/Beyond-Planet-Earth-K-Tsiolkovsky/dp/B0000CKO3P.

Vesna, Victoria. “8 Space pt1 1280x720.” YouTube, YouTube, 29 July 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZIqTR332l8.