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Intro -- Contents -- Preface to the Paperback Edition -- Acknowledgments -- List of Figures -- Abbreviations -- Notes on Contributors -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 European Astrofuturism, Cosmic Provincialism: Historicizing the Space Age -- I Defining astroculture -- II Introducing Europe -- III Fictionalizing science, scientizing fiction -- IV Transcending the future -- V Structuring this volume -- Part I Narrating Outer Space -- Chapter 2 Space, Time and Aliens: The Role of Imagination in Outer Space -- I The cultural history of outer space -- II Space and the imagination: how has space affected our imagination? -- III The imagination and space: how has imagination affected space exploration? -- IV Space and our Weltanschauung: how has space exploration affected our world view? -- Chapter 3 Heaven on Earth: Tunguska, 30 June 1908 -- I The Tunguska Event -- II The literary perspective or, the narrative -- III The scientific perspective or, the space -- IV The perspective of light or, metaphysical reasoning -- V The pictorial perspective or, the contribution of the arts -- VI Traditional hermeneutics as a framework -- Chapter 4 Imagining Inorganic Life: Crystalline Aliens in Science and Fiction Thomas Brandstetter -- I Crystalline aliens enter the scene -- II Speculating about another basis for life -- III Living crystals -- IV The cybernetic view on silicon life -- V Recognizing life -- VI Conclusion -- Part II Projecting Outer Space -- Chapter 5 Projecting Landscapes of the Human Mind onto Another World: Changing Faces of an Imaginary Mars Rainer Eisfeld -- I Deceptive world -- II Arcadian Mars -- III Advanced Mars -- IV Frontier Mars -- V Cold War Mars -- VI Terraformed Mars -- Chapter 6 'Smash the Myth of the Fascist Rocket Baron': East German Attacks on Wernher von Braun in the 1960s Michael J. Neufeld I Julius Mader's attack on von Braun -- II Frozen Lightning -- III The Dora trial in Essen -- IV Divided discourses -- Chapter 7 Transcendence of Gravity: Arthur C. Clarke and the Apocalypse of Weightlessness -- I Mythological fuel for rockets of reality -- II Science, fiction and apocalyptic myth -- III The apocalyptic teleology of Clarke's writings -- IV Gravity and apocalyptic thought -- V The discarded body and the end of man -- VI Prelapsarian props: myth and motivation in the pro-space movement -- Part III Visualizing Outer Space -- Chapter 8 Per Media Ad Astra? Outer Space in West Germany's Media, 1957-87 -- I Spaceflight and the media -- II Germany's crux: the military dimension of space -- III Including the West Germans: universalist versus nationalist interpretations of spaceflight -- IV Technocracy and astrofuturism -- V Via media to the stars? -- Chapter 9 Balloons on the Moon: Visions of Space Travel in Francophone Comic Strips -- I A primer on comics and space -- II V-2 realism and the shift in comic strip representations of space -- III The double pioneer: Hergé opens the moon ball -- IV The other realist wave: Buck Danny -- V Balancing reality and fantasy: the Canadian-Belgian solution -- VI Moving into a different orbit: sex, smurfs and parsecs -- VII Conclusion -- Chapter 10 A Stumble in the Dark: Contextualizing Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's Space: 1999 -- I 1999/2001: seriousness and credibility -- II The Infernal Machine: techno-fascination and techno-skepticism -- III A Matter of Life and Death: the impact of the energy crisis -- IV The Space Ark: predestined purposes -- V Earthbound: science fiction and contemporary issues -- VI The Troubled Spirit: mirror images -- VII The Space Brain: cosmic intelligence -- VIII The Age of Extremes: optimism and crisis -- Part IV Encountering Outer Space Chapter 11 Life as We Don't Yet Know It: An Anthropologist's First Contact with the Science of 'Weird Life' -- I Romancing 'weird life' -- II The Wild Blue Yonder: an exercise in interdiscursive poetics -- III Alien designers: second origins and the International Raëlian Movement -- IV Concluding remarks -- Chapter 12 A Ghost in the Machine: How Sociology Tried to Explain (Away) American Flying Saucers and European Ghost Rockets, 1946-47 Pierre Lagrange -- I Saucer believers or skeptics? -- II Constructing European ghost rockets as a Soviet menace -- III Science-fiction influence? -- IV A new social history of flying saucers -- Chapter 13 Seeing the Future of Civilization in the Skies of Quarouble: UFO Encounters and the Problem of Empire in Postwar France -- I A marginalized man's troubled contacts with a 'superior civilization' -- II Roger-Luc Mary interprets Dewilde's contact -- III Aimé Michel, ufology and benevolent empire -- IV Jacques Vallée, UFOs and the difficulty of imagining a world without empire -- V Failing to conquer the final frontier -- Part V Inscribing Outer Space -- Chapter 14 Self-Reproducing Automata and the Impossibility of SETI -- I Sagan and Fermi -- II Objection -- III Exploring the galaxy with self-replicating automata? -- IV Self-reproduction of automata in space -- V Genomes and computer programs -- VI Robots to the rescue -- VII Nanorobots -- VIII Assumptions -- IX Conclusion -- Chapter 15 Inscribing Scientific Knowledge: Interstellar Communication, NASA's Pioneer Plaque and Contact with Cultures of the Imagination, 1971-72 -- I Space exploration, universal physical laws and communication with extraterrestrial intelligence (CETI) -- II NASA's Pioneer plaque, 1971-72 -- III Mapping pulsars and inscribing scientific knowledge -- IV Beyond words: the transformation of human figures V Interstellar messages, scientific facts and cultures of the imagination -- Chapter 16 Alien Spotting: Damien Hirst's Beagle 2 Mars Lander Calibration Target and the Exploitation of Outer Space -- I Blurring boundaries between science, economy, and art -- II Spotting aliens -- III Visual candy -- IV Art for Martians -- Epilogue -- Chapter 17 Look Up! Art in the Age of Orbitization -- I Space art -- II SpacePlace: Art in the Age of Orbitization -- III Looking up and going up -- IV A space for art, spaces in art, and art in space -- Bibliography -- Index
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