Europe's Final Frontier: Astroculture and Planetary Power since 1945
The main landmass of Europe does not appear in the iconic Blue Marble photograph of earth, taken from space on the final Apollo mission to the moon in December 1972. Europe as a continent remains out of frame, hidden north beyond the curvature of the planet. Viewers instead see swirling clouds, vast...
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Cambridge University Press (CUP)
2022
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0960777321000813 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0960777321000813 |
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/s0960777321000813 2023-05-15T14:11:34+02:00 Europe's Final Frontier: Astroculture and Planetary Power since 1945 Goossen, Benjamin W. 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0960777321000813 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0960777321000813 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms Contemporary European History page 1-14 ISSN 0960-7773 1469-2171 History journal-article 2022 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/s0960777321000813 2022-07-15T11:37:43Z The main landmass of Europe does not appear in the iconic Blue Marble photograph of earth, taken from space on the final Apollo mission to the moon in December 1972. Europe as a continent remains out of frame, hidden north beyond the curvature of the planet. Viewers instead see swirling clouds, vast expanses of the world ocean and the partially obscured forms of Africa, Antarctica and the Arabian Peninsula. Decentring the Global North was crucial to the charisma of this image, which for half a century has been a symbol of human unity and a staple of appeals to protect the only planet we have ever inhabited. The universality of the photograph contrasted with the frictions of the Cold War and decolonisation that peaked in the 1960s. Blue Marble is nonetheless deeply ambivalent. Its extraterrestrial vantage was possible thanks to the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. And the implicit message of the photograph – that the benefits of spaceflight and other advanced technologies would be shared with all peoples as a contribution to global economic development – simultaneously invoked legacies of inequality from the epoch of formal imperialism, itself not yet at an end. Regions visible in Blue Marble , in fact, included territory still administered at the time by Britain, France, Norway, Portugal and Spain. 1 Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctica Cambridge University Press (via Crossref) Norway Contemporary European History 1 14 |
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Cambridge University Press (via Crossref) |
op_collection_id |
crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
topic |
History |
spellingShingle |
History Goossen, Benjamin W. Europe's Final Frontier: Astroculture and Planetary Power since 1945 |
topic_facet |
History |
description |
The main landmass of Europe does not appear in the iconic Blue Marble photograph of earth, taken from space on the final Apollo mission to the moon in December 1972. Europe as a continent remains out of frame, hidden north beyond the curvature of the planet. Viewers instead see swirling clouds, vast expanses of the world ocean and the partially obscured forms of Africa, Antarctica and the Arabian Peninsula. Decentring the Global North was crucial to the charisma of this image, which for half a century has been a symbol of human unity and a staple of appeals to protect the only planet we have ever inhabited. The universality of the photograph contrasted with the frictions of the Cold War and decolonisation that peaked in the 1960s. Blue Marble is nonetheless deeply ambivalent. Its extraterrestrial vantage was possible thanks to the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. And the implicit message of the photograph – that the benefits of spaceflight and other advanced technologies would be shared with all peoples as a contribution to global economic development – simultaneously invoked legacies of inequality from the epoch of formal imperialism, itself not yet at an end. Regions visible in Blue Marble , in fact, included territory still administered at the time by Britain, France, Norway, Portugal and Spain. 1 |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Goossen, Benjamin W. |
author_facet |
Goossen, Benjamin W. |
author_sort |
Goossen, Benjamin W. |
title |
Europe's Final Frontier: Astroculture and Planetary Power since 1945 |
title_short |
Europe's Final Frontier: Astroculture and Planetary Power since 1945 |
title_full |
Europe's Final Frontier: Astroculture and Planetary Power since 1945 |
title_fullStr |
Europe's Final Frontier: Astroculture and Planetary Power since 1945 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Europe's Final Frontier: Astroculture and Planetary Power since 1945 |
title_sort |
europe's final frontier: astroculture and planetary power since 1945 |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0960777321000813 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0960777321000813 |
geographic |
Norway |
geographic_facet |
Norway |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica |
op_source |
Contemporary European History page 1-14 ISSN 0960-7773 1469-2171 |
op_rights |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/s0960777321000813 |
container_title |
Contemporary European History |
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1 |
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14 |
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1766283724076351488 |