This September, we participated at the annual Ethnographies of Outer Space (EOS) conference, presenting our work on topographies of Earth-space relations. This year was hosted by the ARIES team at Jagiellonian University in Krakow. It was a wonderful event and we truly enjoyed the chance to spend two days exchanging with peers in the social and cultural studies of outer space.

In September we held our first Strategic Foresight Workshop, focusing on the Future(s) of European Launchers and Strategic Autonomy. ESPI Director Hermann Ludwig Moeller delivered a keynote, setting the stage for insightful discussions. Through a Causal Layered Analysis, 13 participants explored in-depth the challenges and opportunities in Europe’s space future. We’re so grateful to all who contributed, laying the foundation for further research and dialogue on Europe’s strategic space autonomy.

In September, in an article published in Imaginary Papers, a newsletter by the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University, FutureSpace member Philipp Kürten analyzed the TV series For All Mankind, focusing on Europe's absence in the alternate-history space race it depicts. He reflects on how this mirrors real concerns about Europe's space autonomy, aligning with observations from the FutureSpace project’s research on European stakeholders’ fears of lagging behind.

In June, FutureSpace researcher Joseph Popper joined Reinhard Tlustos (Austrian Space Forum) in an open conversation at Galerie RAUMINHALT in Vienna. They shared and explored different methods and approaches to creating space simulations and staging Mars on Earth. Moderated by Dr. Barbara Imhof, space architect and co-founder of LIQUIFER, the talk was part of the LIQUIFER exhibition series “Living Beyond Earth: Architecture for Extreme Environments.”

In June, our researchers, as members of the UN affiliated Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) that represents university students and young professionals, collaborated to write a summary for the SGAC newsletter about the FutureSpace Project and its ambitions. Our visiting scholar Matúš Babják wrote a poignant analysis of the current situation of the European space industry, and our researchers Phillip Kürten and Kai Strycker also contributed to the text.

In May, FutureSpace researcher Nina Klimburg-Witjes was invited to the Expert Hearing for the UNESCO World Commission on the Ethics of Science and Technology (COMEST), Working Group on the Ethics of Astro-biological Research and Human Expansion in Outer Space to provide insights on the future governance and sustainability challenges related to Space Exploration.

In May, FutureSpace went to Oslo for a 2-day workshop with colleagues from the ERC funded project CoFUTURES to present and discuss our interests, methodologies and potential synergies to explore multiple futures in the making! CoFUTURES studies the recent proliferation of fiction based on ethnic, cultural, or national identity as take-off points for imagining possible futures despite their globally-spread locations of production. We learned a lot and look forward to more exciting things to come!

In May, FutureSpace researcher and team leader Nina Klimburg-Witjes introduced the FutureSpace project in a keynote talk at a Doctoral Colloquium of the Technical University of Munich, presenting interests, themes, and experiences from the team’s ongoing research at that time. Additionally, she offered a reflexive and personal journey through the dis/continuities of academic life.