AoT_slides.md

title	author	date
The Black Man in the Cosmos	Cail Daley	Astronomy on Tap---July 23, 2020

Space-Travel in the (Near?) Future

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A New Era?

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::: {.columns} :::::: {.column width=50%} NASA's Moon to Mars Program

• Back to the moon by 2024
  • sustainable exploration by 2030
  • public-private partnership
  • testbed for Mars mission

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::: {.fragment .grow} Space could be a $1 trillion industry by 2040! :::

::: notes

• Returning to the moon in 2024!

  • first time since Apollo 17 in 1972

• Emphasis on:

  • sustained human presence

• Mars is on the horizon...

  • US, UAE, China missions launching this year

• Global space industry could be worth up to $1 trillion by 2040

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Inspiring The Next Generation {.scrollable}

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Credit: NASA's Mars Exploration Program

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• next generation called to be technicians, teachers, farmers on mars
• Clearly, the (motivating) agenda is colonization :::

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A New Colony?

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What would we do on Mars?

Research? Mining? Habitation?

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Decolonizing Mars

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There's a matter of inclusion---space exploration is something that we all take part in.
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[--- Lucianne Walkowicz]{.credit} [NASA/Library of Congress Astrobiologist]{.credit}

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Kalpana Chawla was a hero in India, and like so many kids growing up in the 90s, I wanted to be like her.

Immigrant, engineer, astronaut.

I wrote about her in my college entrance essay. (1/n)

— Gautham Narayan (@gsnarayan) February 1, 2019

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::: notes

• Some of the reasons I have heard...
• same agenda as previous colonial project

There’s a matter of inclusion—space exploration is something that we all take part in. We have to think about the way we talk about who goes to space—who’s included in the conversation in who’s not. One of the fundamental things to do is just include [those normally left out of these discussions] in the conversation in a real way, such that they’re actually listened to. :::

Who Gets to Go to Space?

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Space-Age Visions of the Future {.scrollable}

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::: notes

• Looked back to 50's sci-fi pulp fiction art (example: arriving at mars)
• Selected photos with people in them
• If I were growing up in the 50/60s & were not white, would not think space is for me :::

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The NASA Art Program

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::: notes

• Artist-in residency program
• Norman Rockwell, Andy Warhol, etc.
• But one artist was rejected :::

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An Opportunity Missed {.scrollable}

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This is my view on the race for space. We'll never get it until we Americans, collectively and individually get us a new sound. A new sound of harmony, brotherly love, common respect and consideration for the dignity and freedom of men and woman.
(Sun Ra)

— Sun Ra Arkestra (@SunRaUniverse) July 22, 2020

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Two Black Visions of Space

Sun Ra (1914-1993)

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Trip to Saturn (1936?)

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I landed on a planet that I identified as Saturn...
They teleported me and I was down on [a] stage with them.
They had one little antenna on each ear. A little antenna over each eye. They talked to me. I would speak [through music], and the world would listen. That's what they told me. :::

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::: notes

• Born & Raised in Birmingham, Alabama
• can't stress enough--he was a true intellectual/thinker

::: {style="text-align:left; margin-bottom:1em"} A pioneer of Jazz:

• free improvisation, modal & space jazz
• early adopter of keyboards, synthesizers
• 1000+ songs, 100+ albums :::

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My whole body changed into something else. I could see through myself. And I went up... I wasn't in human form... I landed on a planet that I identified as Saturn... they teleported me and I was down on [a] stage with them. They wanted to talk with me. They had one little antenna on each ear. A little antenna over each eye. They talked to me. They told me to stop [attending college] because there was going to be great trouble in schools... the world was going into complete chaos... I would speak [through music], and the world would listen. That's what they told me.[15] :::

• Alien Encounter was years before depictions of flying saucers and alien abductions (if chronologically accurate)

• Cede the floor to Sun Ra, speak for himself! (1974 space is the place)

• Two clips: opening scene, then his appearance & speech to a black community center :::

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Parliament-Funkadelic

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::: notes

“Once we did Chocolate City—putting black people in situations they have never been in [like the White House], and it worked, I knew I had to find another place for black people to be. And space was that place… Put [black people] in places that you don’t usually see ’em. And nobody has seen ’em on no spaceships! Once you seen ’em sittin’ on spaceship like it was a Cadillac then it was funny, cool.” :::

The Mothership

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Today

Space Agencies Follow Suit

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Keep Exploring!

All free on YouTube:

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Sun Ra:

• Space is the Place movie
• Sun Ra---A Joyful Noise documentary
• Space is the Place song
• Sleeping Beauty album

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P-Funk:

• Landing of the Mothership! live
• Mothership Connection album
• Chocolate City song
• P-Funk's SuperHeros website

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Extra

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Astro Black

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• http://www.openculture.com/2014/07/full-lecture-and-reading-list-from-sun-ras-1971-uc-berkeley-course.html
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q0A53Coqd0

In tomorrow’s world, men will not need artificial instruments such as jets and space ships. In the world of tomorrow, the new man will ‘think’ the place he wants to go, then his mind will take him there.

Lee "Scratch" Perry

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George Clinton

"We had put black people in situations nobody ever thought they would be in, like the White House. I figured another place you wouldn't think black people would be was in outer space. I was a big fan of Star Trek, so we did a thing with a pimp sitting in a spaceship shaped like a Cadillac, and we did all these James Brown-type grooves, but with street talk and ghetto slang. Make my funk the P-Funk. It was all kinda like drug talk. We were the first ones to call the music dope," he says.

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• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQjgprCVrcQ

The Pale Blue Dot

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::: {.credit style="bottom:1.6%; right:27%"} Carl Sagan's The Pale Blue Dot. Library of Congress.
-3:20 :::

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