{"id":32223,"date":"2022-12-10T18:56:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-10T18:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=32223"},"modified":"2022-12-13T15:36:34","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T15:36:34","slug":"this-course-takes-college-students-out-of-this-world-and-teaches-them-what-it-takes-to-become-space-pioneers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/this-course-takes-college-students-out-of-this-world-and-teaches-them-what-it-takes-to-become-space-pioneers\/","title":{"rendered":"This course takes college students out of this world \u2013 and teaches them what it takes to become space\u00a0pioneers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Joshua D. Ambrosius<\/a>, University of Dayton<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Text<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Uncommon Courses<\/a> is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Title of course:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSpace Exploration: Toward a Spacefaring Society\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What prompted the idea for the course?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The idea came from a desire to share my own space research<\/a> with my students. About a decade ago, I decided to apply my knowledge as a political scientist to examine how people\u2019s interest in space \u2013 and preferences for government funding of space exploration \u2013 were influenced by their religious belonging, beliefs and behaviors. I worked on this project on and off alongside my work on other topics but ultimately found the motivation to finish writing my first space article after leaving a November 2014 screening of the film \u201cInterstellar<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My article on the \u201cseparation of church and space<\/a>\u201d got way more attention outside academia than all my other work combined. Since then, I\u2019ve pursued more space-oriented work on evangelical support for space exploration during the Trump administration<\/a> and the effects of race on attitudes toward space exploration, and space policy education. When I was given the opportunity to design and teach a special-topics course about society and space, I jumped at the chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does the course explore?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This course equips students, mostly engineering and business majors, to see space exploration not only as rocket science, but also as a topic for social science. We look at humanity\u2019s space activities from the standpoint of politics, economics and sociology. There are actually recognized subfields called astropolitics<\/a>, the economics of space<\/a> and astrosociology<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The class does a group project on how humanity should respond to the discovery of extraterrestrial life, microbial or intelligent. But we also examine many different day-to-day issues. These include how NASA funding is just \u201chalf a penny<\/a>\u201d \u2013 as the space agency says \u2013 of every U.S. tax dollar; and how leftover space junk<\/a> will increasingly threaten humanity\u2019s ability to launch rockets into orbit. Another topic we examine is how U.S. Space Force<\/a> recruitment videos<\/a> allude to ideas of \u201creligious destiny<\/a>\u201d as new recruits are asked to ponder their ultimate purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly all topics and readings are multidisciplinary. For instance, our study of how different nations cooperate or compete in outer space is informed by international relations, game theory and cross-cultural management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why is this course relevant now?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After the U.S. last left the Moon in December 1972<\/a>, humanity has spent a half-century of manned exploration not far from Earth. But governments and industry partners are dreaming anew about long-term settlement of the Moon and Mars<\/a> – as demonstrated by NASA\u2019s successful launch of Artemis I<\/a>. Private companies are deploying reusable rockets<\/a>, transporting astronauts<\/a> to the International Space Station and taking private tourists to outer space<\/a>. For humanity to become a truly interplanetary species, space education must go beyond the technical elements of how to get there. It should also take into account the social, legal and ethical concerns that will arise once we arrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s a critical lesson from the course?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Authors Giancarlo Genta and Michael Rycroft<\/a> capture what I spend the whole semester arguing. They claim that the current generation can begin to \u201ctake its first faltering steps on the path towards a spacefaring civilization.\u201d But ultimately, they say, \u201cthe outcome will depend on social, political and economic issues rather than technological and scientific ones.\u201d Humanity can develop the technologies for deep space exploration, but it will take political will and economic sense to make it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What materials does the course feature?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Neil deGrasse Tyson\u2019s \u201cSpace Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier<\/a>,\u201d which lays out a clear explanation of our past in space and a vision for our future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The \u201c50 Years of Spaceflight<\/a>\u201d timeline on Space.com, which provides a quick overview of space history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Selections from \u201cAstrobiology, History, and Society: Life Beyond Earth and the Impact of Discovery<\/a>\u201d edited by Douglas Vakoch, a volume that explores how the discovery of extraterrestrial life would affect humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The 1997 film \u201cContact<\/a>\u201d and the 2016 film \u201cArrival<\/a>,\u201d which both deal with international tensions at the point of extraterrestrial contact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What will the course prepare students to do?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Carl Starr, operations manager of the James Webb Space Telescope, noted during a recent lecture<\/a> that college graduates may have technical skills related to space, but might not know much about space history and politics. Starr also complained that recent graduates have trouble communicating effectively and efficiently. This course seeks to fill both voids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joshua D. Ambrosius<\/a>, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Dayton<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joshua D. Ambrosius, University of Dayton Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching. Title of course: \u201cSpace Exploration: Toward a Spacefaring Society\u201d What prompted the idea for the course? The idea came from a desire to share my own space research with my students. About a decade […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":32224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[292],"tags":[3162,687,267,1103,4492,187,1105,13092,13093,8185,3153,13094],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32223"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32223"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32254,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32223\/revisions\/32254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}