Serendipitous Outcomes in Space History: From Space Photography to Environmental Surveillance

Grevsmühl, Sebastian

doi:10.1057/9781137438744_9

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…In response to the 1970s surplus of data produced from military surveillance, the US NASA, European states and developing countries, such as India, reconceptualized satellites as a tool for exploring and protecting the Earth’s environments, for example monitoring deforestation, oceanic changes, droughts and urban sprawl (Grevsmühl, 2014a, 2014b). Ultimately, it is the users of satellite data that define whether their application will be for environmental, developmental, or military ends.…”

Section: The Earthly Geopolitical Histories Of the Orbital Technospherementioning

confidence: 99%

The orbital technosphere: The provision of meaning and matter by satellites

Gärdebo

Marzecova

Knowles

2017

The Anthropocene Review

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With a new ‘technosphere’ concept, Peter Haff offers a provocative reconceptualization of technology in Anthropocene, not as derivative consequence of human activity, but as a new ‘quasi-autonomous’ sphere of the environment that conditions human survival within the Earth System. Paying attention to the expansion of the orbital satellites in outer space, this paper suggests that technosphere analysis needs to conceptualize specific histories of the planetary-scale technology while considering how these technologies provide the epistemological basis and limitations for the technosphere. Satellites enhance the capacity of the technosphere as a system and provide systemic knowledge that is the basis for the meaning of the technosphere concept. Yet, this expansion is rooted in the contingencies of earthly geopolitics and the continual breakdown of technology – in this instance as a space debris layer formed in orbit around Earth that endangers the technosphere itself.

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Section: The Earthly Geopolitical Histories Of the Orbital Technospherementioning

confidence: 99%

The orbital technosphere: The provision of meaning and matter by satellites

Gärdebo

Marzecova

Knowles

2017

The Anthropocene Review

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“…Satellite tracking and observation began in 1957 16 with an effort to catalog satellites by the National Space Surveillance Control Center (NSSCC) with the first satellite used for long-range communication in 1958. 17 1962 saw the first observation efforts to measure sea ice by satellite, and the US Navy’s involvement carried implications for the national security agenda. 18 In 1968, communications and intelligence satellites were launched by the United States specifically for military surveillance needs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By the 1990s, satellites were equipped with Global Positioning Systems which allowed detailed location information on the acquired images. 17 Satellite imaging has found widespread use in conflict monitoring. Studies of the Syrian civil war have employed the use of satellites to track damage to infrastructure, damage to historical sites, and the movements of refugees and have been used to show how blackouts have progressed through the nation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracking electricity losses and their perceived causes using nighttime light and social media

Kerber,

Duncan,

L’Her

et al. 2023

iScience

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Environing technologies: a theory of making environment

Sörlin

Wormbs

2018

History and Technology

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The central proposal of this article is that environing technologies shape and structure the way in which nature becomes environment, and as such used, perceived and understood. The argument builds on the understanding that environment is the result of human intervention. Technology is here understood broadly as a terraforming practise, materially and conceptually. We suggest that the compound environing technologies enable us to see environmental change on multiple scales and in new registers. That technologies alter the physical world is not new; our contribution focuses on the conceptual, epistemological, economic and emotional appreciation of systems and aggregates of technologies that is part and parcel of material change. The environing technologies that enable such articulation and comprehension hold potential in the future transformation that our societies need to undergo to overcome the crisis of environment and climate.

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Serendipitous Outcomes in Space History: From Space Photography to Environmental Surveillance

Cited by 3 publications

References 23 publications

The orbital technosphere: The provision of meaning and matter by satellites

The orbital technosphere: The provision of meaning and matter by satellites

Tracking electricity losses and their perceived causes using nighttime light and social media

Environing technologies: a theory of making environment

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