• Project leader: Darshan Vigneswaran

LUNARGOV describes the ‘constitutional order’ of outer space colonization, while providing engineers, activists, artists and administrators with the critical tools to build more just outer space futures. The study focusses empirically on efforts to establish a permanent human settlement on the Moon. LUNARGOV asks: how will a lunar settlement be governed? Technical experts in specialist institutions are deciding: who can be a member of the lunar community, which rights lunar settlers can demand, and what sort of sovereignty lunar crews have. The study answers these questions through in-depth ethnographic research into efforts to select and train astronauts, decide on their rights to life and determine their decision-making autonomy.

Interview

Darshan Vigneswaran explains why it makes sense to move from the study of migration on earth to the study of migration to outer space.

• Project leader: Enrike van Wingerden

Orbital Geopolitics and Spaceport Frontiers investigates the political dimensions of emerging spaceports, focusing on both equatorial and polar launch sites that support the growing demand for satellites and space-based applications. The project seeks to understand how political decisions shape the development of spaceport infrastructure, influencing regional dynamics and prompting varied responses. By examining how governments, corporations, and local communities engage with and shape spaceport development, the project traces the connections between satellite industry growth and more-than-human politics on Earth.

• Project leader: Enrike van Wingerden

Tracking Climate Migration examines how international organizations, companies, and activists leverage emerging technologies, particularly space-based infrastructures like satellite monitoring, to track human migration driven by climate change. These tools represent a new generation of “migration information infrastructures” that aim to collect and analyze data on climate-related displacement, profoundly shaping the politics and ethics of migrant tracking. By examining the impact of these space-based infrastructures on our understanding of and response to migration dynamics, this research contributes to critical discussions on the role of technology and data in addressing climate-driven displacement.

• Project leader: Diliara Valeeva

The cosmos of corporate power: Lobbying and control in the space industry
Space companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin invested billions in lobbying efforts. Will the new space race follow the path of the internet boom, ultimately consolidating the sector into the hands of a few powerful corporations? This project analyzes corporate control and ownership structures behind the largest players in the space industry, focusing on the lobbying actions of these companies and key actors. It aims to show how new space companies shape political actions and regulations through lobbying, and how corporate power and influence are steering the future of space exploration.
 

• Project leader: Diliara Valeeva

How have perceptions among space enthusiasts changed over time with the rise of private actors in space? Do they support these new transitions, or do they express concerns? What insights does “folk science” offer about the new space age? This project analyzes discussions on one of the oldest forums of a central space journal, shedding light on how recent economic shifts in space activities are reflected in the discourse of space enthusiasts. By examining these conversations, the project explores public sentiment and popular perceptions of the evolving space industry.

Around the world, a growing number of governments, private companies, and international organizations are actively working to establish a sustained human presence in outer space. Despite the growing importance of CES in both policy and academic debates, empirical data necessary for studying this sector remain fragmented and inconsistent. To address this gap, this article introduces the Crewed Exploration and Settlement Database. This tool is designed to enhance the empirical depth and methodological rigor of the social scientific study of crewed exploration and settlement.

This downloadable file provides access to a curated database compiling social scientific research on outer space. It includes studies, articles, and reports from various disciplines that explore the societal, cultural, political, and ethical dimensions of space exploration and related activities. The database serves as a resource for scholars, educators, and anyone interested in the intersection of social science and outer space.

This database lists all book – length biographical material on astronauts, cosmonauts and taiknauts, stretching back to Yuri Gargarin.

Enrike van Wingerden is a lecturer and researcher at the University of Amsterdam and Erasmus University Rotterdam. Her research is centered on the international relations between societies, environments, and technologies in the (post-)colonial world. She is currently investigating the political and infrastructural dynamics of emerging spaceports, analyzing how equatorial and polar orbital launch sites shape geopolitical dynamics, power asymmetries, and environmental politics.

Darshan Vigneswaran is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science. Most of his work is on the politics of migration, but he has recently shifted focus to the movement of humans to outer space environments. At present, Darshan is building a project called LUNARGOV, which seeks to understand the constitutional structure of a human community on the moon through grounded work with expert communities in Europe.

Diliara Valeeva is an Assistant Professor in Computational Social Science at the Political Science department of the University of Amsterdam (UvA). Her academic career has been driven by a deep commitment to understanding power dynamics, specifically how powerful entities—whether they are corporations, elites, or shareholders—gain and exercise power. She is currently researching how major tech companies and tech elites are transforming the outer space industry. This new space race, shifting from geopolitical to economic competition, covers key sectors like surveillance, communication, space mining, and travel.

The International Space Station (ISS) is arguably the oldest extra-terrestrial society in low earth orbit (LEO). ETHNO-ISS is a comparative and multi-sited ethnography of the ISS among some of the ​key participants contributing to its modular architecture within its dynamic nexus of inhabitation between earth and LEO.

FutureSpace explores how practices of European integration and their underlying values and tensions inform European outer space activities – and how imagined space futures influence socio-political practices on Earth. FutureSpace‘s main objective is to develop a topography of envisioned European engagements with outer space through an in-depth investigation of various conflicting narratives about the Ariane programme.

Social Studies of Outer Space is an interdisciplinary, international research network exploring the social dimensions of outer space, from the politics and practices of space technology to the imaginaries and utopias it inspires. Rooted in the social sciences and STS, SSOS scholars examine how space shapes and reflects societal dynamics.