Pennsylvania wants to be the next space state(opens in new window). With a trip to the moon(opens in new window) in progress and a mark on Mars(opens in new window) in the books, Carnegie Mellon University’s expertise in engineering and computer science has cemented the university as a player in the rapidly growing, next-generation space exploration industry. Humans have the technology to go to space. CMU English professors James Wynn(opens in new window) and Kathy M. Newman(opens in new window) are asking whether they should and what sorts of ethical questions they should consider if they proceed.

The pair are leading a project called Planetary Hospitality(opens in new window) that explores astrocolonialism, climate change, capitalism, how humans understand and influence space travel, and what makes a planet hospitable. Through a series of lectures, film screenings, courses and a symposium, the three-year project is bringing the humanities into a conversation usually overshadowed by engineering and computer science. 

Wynn, an associate professor of English in the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences(opens in new window), said it is important to consider space exploration and settlement from the perspective of colonialism. There are no known organisms living in the places humans aspire to occupy, the potential for conflicts over land and resources between nations are parallel to those in past colonial moments.  

"We want to go to space. We want people in space. But as humanists, we are wondering if we are going to make some of the same judgments and mistakes that we made in the past," Wynn said. "I'm interested in how people are being persuaded to go to and live in a colony or in a colonized space. I look at the Americas in the colonial period but then I also look at science fiction and how colonies have been portrayed there. These sources can tell us about what people think is attractive about colonies or what they think their lives are going to be like there."

Newman, an associate professor of English in Dietrich College, said hospitality is an interesting framework for thinking about space.

"As I was beginning this research process, I started seeing articles in science magazines with titles like 'The Top Five Most Hospitable Planets to Live On,' or lists of the most inhospitable planets. I thought it was weird that we are using the concept of our own livability to define other planets, because we really cannot live anywhere else but Earth," she said. "There's a big gap between what people think we can do and what we can actually do. And we're studying that gap." 

Planetary Hospitality recently hosted a screening of "The Martian," a film starring Matt Damon about an astronaut who struggles to survive on Mars while waiting for a rescue mission. Newman said this example shows how compelling space stories in popular culture are not necessarily true to science. 

"If you put Matt Damon on Mars, in a fictional story in which he succeeds, it makes people want to go to Mars," Newman said. "In reality, anyone living on Mars for as long as Matt Damon's character was living there would be losing 1%-2% of their bone mass in their spine and hips every month, even if they were working out for two hours per day! This would produce severe osteoporosis, or worse. At the same time, I'm interested in how we need films like 'The Martian' and 'Interstellar' to get us excited about space exploration."

Planetary Hospitality is part of a larger hospitality initiative(opens in new window) from the Center for the Arts in Society(opens in new window). Newman and Wynn are planning a 2025 symposium and a course, Hospitable Planets, next year. All of the Planetary Hospitality events are free and open to the public. 

Wynn said he hoped the project will spark different kinds of conversations on campus. 

"There is interesting scholarly work on this campus about space that is not engineering. We are not building the rockets, we are not creating the robots that are going over the surface of the moon, but we are dealing with the human dimensions of this," he said.