News
FutureSpace hosts 4th annual Ethnographies of Outer Space Symposium
On September 25 and 26 2025, FutureSpace hosted the 4th annual Ethnographies of Outer Space Symposium. We thoroughly enjoyed an incredible two days of presentations, discussions, and collaboration about all things Social Studies of Outer Space (SSOS) from a wide range of academic fields. The symposium brought together scholars working at the...
Im Schatten der Sterne – wespennest
Click here for article | In an article published in the Austrian magazine “wespennest” Nina Klimburg-Witjes and Kai Strycker discuss the critical situation of space debris and the potential threats it poses to our space infrastructure. Written in an attempt to avert the general public to the concerning developments that so often happen out of sight and out of mind, the article gives a broad overview of the current predicament of orbital debris.
FutureSpace hosts Friends from the University of Amsterdam and Erasmus University Rotterdam
FutureSpace & Friends To kick off 2025 with new ideas, projects and collaborations, our brilliant colleagues Darshan Vigneswaran and Enrike van Wingerden (University of Amsterdam / Uni Rotterdam) visited us in Vienna for a wonderful workshop, in which we explored outer space futures, infrastructures, and Earth-Space governance together. How...
FutureSpace presents at Linköping Space Studies Institute
On Wednesday 4 December, Joseph presented ongoing research in an online seminar hosted by the Linköping Space Studies Institute. The talk was titled "Topographies of Earth-Space Relations" and shared initial findings into the making of Ariane and European space futures, the scalar narratives involved, and some first ideas for a topography of...
2024 Earth-Space Symposium on ‘Sustainability, Governance, Futures’
This November, Nina and Philipp participated at the 2024 Earth-Space Symposium on ‘Sustainability, Governance, Futures’, presenting their work on Futuring Practices and conflicting Temporalities in European Space Policy. This year was hosted by the ERC Project PLANETSTEWARDS of the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht...
WTMC Series on Teaching and Learning STS: Infrastructures Across Borders
As part of the WTMC Series on Teaching and Learning STS: Infrastructures Across Borders, Nina Klimburg-Witjes presented a talk entitled "Infrastructures of Earth-Space Relations: Following a Rocket" to PhD students from all across the Netherlands. This installment of the WTMC PhD Fall Workshop, from the 4th to the 7th November 2024, was organized...
FutureSpace at Ethnographies of Outer Space Conference
This September, Nina and Joseph participated at the annual Ethnographies of Outer Space [EOS] conference, presenting their work on topographies of Earth-space relations. This year was hosted by the ARIES team at Jagiellonian University in Krakow. It was a wonderful event and we truly enjoyed the chance to spend two days exchanging with peers in...
Strategic Foresight Workshop on European Launchers and Strategic Autonomy
Yesterday marked a significant milestone as we held our first Strategic Foresight Workshop in the FutureSpace project. Our topic for this first iteration was the Future(s) of European Launchers and European Strategic Autonomy. The workshop brought together a wonderful group of experts, and we were privileged to begin the day with a Keynote...
‘For all Mankind’ and Europe’s non-representation in alternative history space race
Philipp Kürten just published a piece in the recent edition of the Imaginary Papers, a quarterly newsletter curated by the Center for Science and the Imagination (CSI) at Arizona State University (ASU). Imaginary papers explores speculative futures, science fiction, worldbuilding, futures thinking, “and the unplumbed depths of the imagination”....
FutureSpace at EASST-4S 2024
This July the FutureSpace Team attended, presented, and organised a panel at the EASST-4S 2024 conference in Amsterdam this year, the largest international STS conference to date. Together with Matjaz Vidmar (University of Edinburgh), Nina and Joseph organised the panel Outer Space: Imaginaries, Infrastructures, and Interventions. With 18...
Art-Science Open Conversation Series
On Monday 17 June 2024, FutureSpace researcher Joseph Popper participated in an open conversation with Reinhard Tlustos from the Austrian Space Forum at Galerie RAUMINHALT in Vienna, where they each shared and explored different methods and approaches to creating space simulations and staging Mars on Earth. The conversation was moderated by Dr...
Verliert die EU bei der Raumfahrt den Anschluss? – Der Standard Podcast Edition Zukunft
Click here for article | Nina Klimburg-Witjes, Assistant Professor at the Institute for Science and Technology Studies at the University of Vienna, talks about the role of the Ariane 6 for Europe in the Podcast Edition Zukunft of the Austrian newspaper Der Standard.
European Integration and the Future of Europe´s Presence in Outer Space – Space Generation Advisory Council Newsletter Article
Click here for article | Our researchers who are members of the UN affiliated Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) that represents university students and young professionals have collaborated to write a short summary of the FutureSpace Project and its ambitions for the SGAC newsletter
Expert Hearing for the UNESCO World Commission on the Ethics of Science and Technology (COMEST)
Nina Klimburg-Witjes was invited to the Expert Hearing for the UNESCO World Commission on the Ethics of Science and Technology (COMEST), Working Group on the Ethics of Astro-biological Research and Human Expansion in Outer Space to provide insights on the future governance and sustainability challenges related to Space Exploration.
FutureSpace x CoFUTURES
From May 6-8, 2024 FutureSpace went to Oslo for a 2-day workshop with our colleagues from the ERC funded project CoFUTURES to present and discuss our interests, methodologies and potential synergies to explore multiple futures in the making! Co-futures studies the recent proliferation of fiction based on ethnic, cultural, or national identity as...