A Sea of Stars? Towards an Astropelagic Reading of Outer Space with Jacques Lacan and Hannah Arendt

Abstract

Starting from the fact that the International Outer Space Treaty (Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies/UNOOSA, 1967) has been modeled on international laws of the seas, this essay investigates the epistemic consequences of conceiving outer space archipelagically, or, more specifically and following Craig Santos Perez, terripelagically. By reversing center/periphery structurations in line with both archipelagic approaches to and philosophical theorizations of outer space by Jacques Lacan and Hannah Arendt, the article critiques the current discursive transformation in both science and popular culture of celestial bodies into desirable territories of capitalization, exploitation, and imperialism, and it suggests the term astropelago as an alternative conception. We argue that as a continuation of imperial exploratory mobilities, terripelagic outer space projections, which are becoming increasingly real, demonstrate the need for an outside of capitalism on ever new frontiers to continue ecological—human and nonhuman—exploitation on Earth. In a second part, we explore the initiative “For All Moonkind” and the TV series For All Mankind and the ways in which they center Mars and Earth’s moon respectively as spaces that reaffirm and renew imperial desires.