Space Flight as a Social Phenomenon
On 4 October 1957, the Russian daily Pravda briefly reported on the successful launch of the first artificial satellite Sputnik. Nikita Khrushchev was barely interested in space flight, and the event was believed to be of minor importance. It was only when the news caused an uproar in the US and the rest of the world that Khrushchev understood its true relevance, realising that the launch could even be used for propaganda purposes to demonstrate Russia‘s technological supremacy. The front page title of the following Pravda issue read, „World‘s First Artificial Satellite of Earth Created in Soviet Nation. This effectively triggered a race to the Moon in the public and private sector, while the international community watched the spectacular ‚space race‘ like a soccer match.
The following phase of the competition coincided with a time of economic upturn, but it was also marked by the establishment of the US and the USSR as the two superpowers, and by the iron curtain separating them.
The advancements of space flight, but also its setbacks were among the numerous events that dominated press headlines in the late 1950‘s and 1960‘s. US President John F. Kennedy even offered that the US would cooperate with the USSR in the first lunar mission. In the end, and against all odds, the Americans were simply lucky when they beat Russia in the race to the Moon. It was no coincidence that the first human landing on the Moon in July 1969 took place at prime-time on US television. Live TV coverage of the event finally took outer space all the way into our living rooms.
It was the simultaneous occurrence of political, economic and technological changes that also boosted architecture and design – a boost we still seem to be drawing on (or rather, drawing on again) today. In the wake of these events, architects like Coop Himmelblau, Archigram, or Haus-Rucker Co, as well as designers like Colani were able to create new shapes, structures and – in many respects – new approaches that influenced an entire generation.
During the last lunar mission in December 1972, the astronaut Harrison Schmitt, the last human to walk on the Moon so far, took a photograph of the Earth that was used as an icon by Greenpeace and other environmentalist organisations.
After the first successful landing on the Moon in 1969, i.e. after the race had been run, the general interest in space flight gradually subsided. It was probably not until the Challenger tragedy of 1986 that a new space hype broke out, but this time it reflected a short-lived reaction to the bad news rather than genuine interest. Space flight was no longer „hip“ or inspiring. By the 1980‘s, the young generation of the 1960‘s had grown up, and their focus had shifted to business, ecology and society issues on Earth. It was also time for other scientific fields like biotechnology, computer technology and the Internet to move into the centre of public interest. Instead of space stations and planetary exploration, the new generation of science fiction stories focused on infinite space, the parallel universe of Cyberspace.
Over the past 10 years, developments in space flight – including manned space missions – have met with renewed interest. Most likely this is due to the greater involvement of space agencies, stable political backing for the exploration strategy, and more interesting media reports on the issue. Maybe the reason also lies in the fact that blanks on the map of Earth are becoming increasingly rare. The human desire to explore new boundaries springs from the drive for expansion that appears inherent to life itself. This desire makes us search for new blanks on the map. In outer space, the sheer relation between known and unknown is reversed: what we know is but a tiny fraction of a vast blank expanse, i.e. the infinite black space.
Since the late 1990‘s, there has again been serious discussion on launching a manned mission to Mars, which would require humans to spend a seriously long time travelling through and living in outer
space. The human factor thus combines with the established technological factors to form a system crucial to mission success. This approach inevitably brings our attention not only to the socio-psychological implications of this journey, but also to the architecture and design aspects of the necessary habitat in space.
Space Flight – Exploring a New Field in Architecture
And this is where my journey begins.
I do not believe that there is any dividing line to be drawn between Earth and outer space. I am convinced that there is actually a continuum from the surface we move around right to the infinite space beyond, which we call „outer space“.
When developing architecture and design for Earth, for zero gravity, or for other celestial bodies like the Moon or Mars, the focus of my interest is on the common denominators, the synergies and differences between built habitats in a terrestrial and extraterrestrial context.
The interdisciplinary, intercultural and trans-national cooperation inherent to projects of this type appears topical to me. Team work is to serve as a basis for the development of projects, of built and non-built spaces, structures and transport vehicles (spaceships and pressurized rovers) for humans to live, work and study in – on Earth, in zero gravity, on the Moon and on Mars, with a real and utopian background.
The new exploration strategy of NASA, ESA and space agencies in Japan, Russia, China and India, but also the gradual beginnings of space tourism businesses like Bigelow, EADS or Virgin Galactic, as well as the forthcoming completion of the International Space Station are again providing sensible arguments for including outer space in the architects‘ field of operation. Unlike my now famous colleagues from the 1960‘s, we are trying to create new tasks for architects and designers in the field of space agencies, thus abandoning the utopian concepts of the past, e.g. by cooperating with the European Space Agency (ESA) on the development of a spaceship for Mars.
Our particular interest in these projects is most probably due to their feasibility, which reflects a zeitgeist dominated by rational thinking. In essence, however, it is pure fascination that drives and has always driven us, just like all the others focusing on the architectural aspects of space exploration.
Epilogue:
The real space is outer space and zero gravity, which truly provides for a three-dimensional experience of space.
The International Space Station, a manned satellite of Earth about the size of a soccer field, has been constantly inhabited since the year 2000. Currently a minimum of three people live on the ISS, 350 km above the surface of our planet, and the crew will soon be increased to six.