(Source:British Interplanetary Society)

7.00 - 8.30 pm, 8 September 2010
27/29 South Lambeth Road
London SW8 1SZ

Peter Dickens and James Ormrod

Satellites, space stations and space-missions are raising serious questions. Are these the best ways of using limited resources? Are powerful institutions particularly benefiting? What risks are involved? Are scientific missions really leading to significant new understandings?

Outer space projects should benefit the less-powerful. Satellites can bring telecommunications to marginalised people, for example. Scientific missions can help to develop insights into the cosmos which lay people can understand.

Peter Dickens is Visiting Professor of Sociology at the University of Brighton and Senior Research Associate, Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge. James Ormrod, who will also contribute to this discussion, is lecturer in Sociology at the University of Brighton. He has a special interest in the activists promoting the exploration and settlement of outer space. In 2007 Peter and James published the first book on the sociology of outer space Cosmic Society - Towards a Sociology of the Universe, Routledge pb 2009. Their interactive website: www.sociologyoftheunverse.net raises many of the issues raised in this talk. Members of B.I.S. are invited to contribute their views on this site.

Rocketeer comments: Hmm. Well, if it gives another opportunity to stomp the old canard "Why go into space when there are so many problems on Earth?" then I guess it's a good thing. I won't be able to go, because it clashes with the SIG Space Technology Roadmap meeting, but I may well try and put something together for the website.