(De)Colonising Outer Space: The New Space Economy, Asteroid Mining, and Ethnofuturist Engagements

目前，关于小行星采矿的广泛资料很少，从社会法律角度来看就更少了。这一新兴行业在过去十年的迅速发展和相关的公众关注，证明了这个话题出现在媒体的频率，有必要立即和详细的审查。虽然几乎每周都有关于小行星矿物学的巨大价值的头条新闻出现，但缺乏批判性地参与这一领域的学术材料。新空间经济（NSE）精英和行业参与者创造的叙事（重新）几乎完全利用殖民类比和相关的认识论框架来为他们的活动辩护。然而，这些阻止外星未来和封闭外层空间供私人开发的企图并非没有受到挑战。相反，民族未来主义艺术家的作品倡导了如何管理和与外太空有关的另一种概念：人们在创造未来主义艺术的同时，借鉴了文化历史和信仰，这些文化历史和信仰阻碍或违背了通过私人工业话语维持的事实上的未来。这些民族未来主义者的参与提供了对私营行业参与者看似霸权的话语的批评，经常通过土著知识和精神提出反殖民话语和见解。该奖学金旨在通过两项主要活动，活跃和丰富关于小行星采矿及其随之而来的法律未来的新兴辩论。首先，通过增强我的博士学位的影响和传播其研究结果，以介绍通过参与外太空研究中的土著知识和非殖民化而产生的关键见解。第二，为我的研究生涯的下一阶段做准备，围绕这项研究建立网络，并以此为基础，将我已经熟悉的几个小组和不同的学者聚集在一起，开始在这一研究领域进行跨学科的讨论和合作。这项奖学金将扩展我的博士学位的范围，重点探索我的博士学位产生的见解如何通过社会法律环境的应用而得到激发和进一步发展。实现这一目标还需要我博士学位的概念性工作：我将采用后/非殖民化的方法来研究领域，解构在讨论外层空间立法时经常引用的“人类”的规范性概念，开始批判性地考虑与该术语相关的假设，以及它如何支持行业参与者和那些已经处于权力地位的人。因此，这项工作将突出土著知识、民族未来主义，以及它们如何在外太空法和主导行业叙事中对“人性”的规范概念提出问题。本研究金的实质性成果将实现这些目标。我将通过一系列学术文章、会议报告来传播我的博士研究成果，并将提出一本书的建议，以便在奖学金课程结束后继续这种传播。我将创建一个由学者、实践者和活动家组成的网络，以鼓励研究领域内的跨学科合作，并进一步建立这一领域。研究金最后将举行一次混合会议，开始使网络正规化，并将产生媒体进行在线传播，以便向公众传播。

ContextPresently, there is scant material on asteroid mining broadly, and less still from a socio-legal perspective. The rapidity of this nascent industry's development in the past decade and associated public concern, as evidenced by the frequency with which this topic appears in the media, necessitates an immediate and detailed examination. Whilst hardly a week goes by without a headline appearing with the vast purported value of an asteroid's minerology, there is a dearth of academic material that critically engages with this area. The narratives (re)created by New Space Economy (NSE) elites and industry actors almost exclusively draw upon colonial analogies and associated onto-epistemological frameworks to justify their activities. However, these attempts to foreclose extraterrestrial futurity and enclose Outer Space for private exploitation are not unchallenged. Instead, alternative conceptions of how to govern and relate to Outer Space are advocated for by and through the works of Ethnofuturist artists: people who are creating futuristic art whilst drawing upon cultural histories and beliefs that frustrate or contravene the de facto futurity maintained through private industry discourses. These Ethnofuturist engagements offer critiques of the seemingly-hegemonic discourses of private industry actors, frequently posing anti-colonial discourses and insights through Indigenous knowledges and spirituality.AimsThis fellowship aims to enliven and enrich emerging debates on asteroid mining and its attendant legal futurity through two main activities. First, by enhancing my PhD's impact and disseminating its findings in order to introduce the critical insights produced through engaging with indigenous knowledges and decoloniality in Outer Space studies. Second, preparing for the next stage of my research career by creating networks around this research and building upon it, drawing together several groups and disparate academics with whom I am already acquainted to begin generating interdisciplinary discussion and collaboration in this area of study. This fellowship will extend the scope of my PhD through a focused exploration of how the insights generated through my PhD can be invigorated and developed further through their being applied through a socio-legal setting. Achieving this also requires conceptual work stemming from my PhD: I will adopt a post/decolonial approach to the research area to deconstruct the normative notion of 'humanity' that is frequently invoked when discussing Outer Space legislation to begin critically accounting for the assumptions bound up within this terminology and how it supports industry actors and those already in positions of power. Consequently, this work will highlight indigenous knowledges, Ethnofuturisms, and how they problematise the normative conceptions of 'humanity' within Outer Space law and the dominant industry narrative(s).The substantive outcomes of this Fellowship will achieve these goals. I will disseminate my PhD findings through a series of academic articles, conference presentations, and will generate a book proposal to continue this dissemination beyond the course of the Fellowship. I will create a network of scholars, practitioners, and activists to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration within the research area and to establish this field further. The Fellowship will conclude with a hybrid conference to begin formalising the network and will generate media for online dissemination to reach a public audience.