This dissertation research explores the practice and scientific arguments of planetary scientists, suggesting that the concept of place is fundamental to understanding extraterrestrial landscapes. To do so, doctoral candidate Lisa Messeri will examine how three space science communities employ different methods of practice to achieve the same goal: producing knowledge about other planets. Using ethnographic methods, Messeri tracks research activities of MIT astronomers, NASA Ames planetary geologists, and Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) simulation participants. She suggests that place has an important role for each of these communities and shapes how they study outer space. Planets, as scientific objects, are transformed into worlds that can be explored and mapped; worlds that are more like terrestrial kin than alien others. Astronomers at MIT studying planets in other solar systems, transform numerical counts of photons into complex worlds with atmospheres and weather, imbuing elements of place and thus familiarity onto these distant objects. Instead of creating an Earth-like place in space, NASA planetary geologists and crews of Mars Society's MDRS create spaces on Earth that resemble extraterrestrial landscapes. Planetary geologists at NASA Ames in Moffett Field California conduct field research in Mojave Desert, Yellowstone National Park, and other locations of geologic interest with the intent of learning more about features on Mars, Venus, or the moons of Jupiter. In Utah's San Rafael Desert, the Mars Society has built a permanent habitat occupied by participants on two-week long missions. These participants simulate the experience of being part of an early Martian colony charged with conducting geologic surveys of the alien environment. Simulation members imagine they are on Mars, seeing the landscape outside their habitat as a Martian place, not as Utah. This project moves beyond questioning the role of place in science with respect to the laboratory and field, questioning instead how processes of place-making occur in conjunction with knowledge creation.
Lisa Messeri has completed research for her dissertation "When Worlds Collide: Terrestrial Places and Outer Spaces" supported by the NSF Dissertation Improvement Grant. During her funding period, she spent six months at the NASA Ames Research Center working with the Intelligent Robotics Group. As an anthropologist of science, Messeri was interested in understanding how planetary scientists study distant planets. She was specifically focused on what techniques researchers employed to think about planets as places, i.e., not just remote objects but places infused by human imagination and experience. As a participant observer, Messeri accomplished the goal of her research and assisted in creating public outreach materials for NASA and Microsoft Research. She worked with computer scientists as they transformed high resolution photographs of the Martian surface into a 3D map for Microsoft Research’s desktop application, WorldWide Telescope. The data Messeri collected while observing the day to day operations of this mapping task is the foundation for an argument she is constructing about the democratization of planetary data through mapping. NASA researchers were passionate about collaborating with Microsoft because they wanted to "bring Mars to the people." The most engaging way to do that, they believe, is to make it into a place that you can explore, navigate, and tour. Messeri’s involvement in this project had much broader impacts beyond her field notes. She was tasked with creating two tours of Mars that would draw the general public into a deeper study of Mars and engagement with science. These tours are now available for anyone with internet connection through www.worldwidetelescope.org. Messeri also travelled to Chile during her grant period to observe the night sky with astronomers at the Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory (CTIO). There, a group of astronomers are studying the star system of Alpha Centauri in search of an exoplanet. Exoplanets are very popular in the media and astronomers are narrowing in on detecting the first exoplanet that is the same size and distance from the star as Earth is from the sun. At CTIO, astronomers are hoping to find just such a planet around Alpha Centauri. As with Messeri’s consideration of Mars, she went to CTIO wishing to understand how exoplanets become places. While one can see pictures of Mars and make out boulders and mountains, scientists cannot directly image exoplanets. Imagining them as places comes from an intimate understanding of the data and from conversations about specific aspects of the planet between colleagues. Yet, Messeri found, these spatial imaginings are very important for scientific work because it provides a frame by which to understand and propose theories about exoplanets. Messeri’s research at NASA, CTIO and earlier research at MIT form the basis of her dissertation. To be completed in 2011, the dissertation is an important contribution to Science and Technology Studies because it asserts how ideas of place are central to scientific practice.
