Folks,
Those struck by Martian Curiosity should certainly read yesterday's entry by Fraser MacDonald (Geographer!, University of Edinburgh) on the London Review of Books blog site:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2012/10/03/fraser-macdonald/waiting-for-malina-crater/
A cracker!
All best,
Hayden
-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for critical and radical geographers [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Deborah Dixon [dxd]
Sent: 04 October 2012 14:21
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Mars Curiosity
There are certainly papers coming out of the 'Earth Sciences' and GIS that deploy such imagery, including:
Souness, C. and Hubbard, B., 2012. Mid-latitude glaciation on Mars. Progress in Physical Geography. 36. DOI
Souness, C., Hubbard, B., Milliken, R. E. and Quincey, D., 2012. An inventory and population-scale analysis of martian glacier-like forms. Icarus, 217. 243-255.
Hubbard, B., Milliken, R. E., Kargel, J. S., Limaye, A., Souness, C., 2010. Geomorphological characterization and interpretation of a mid-latitude glacier-like form: Hellas Planitia, Mars. Icarus 211, 330-346 on
-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for critical and radical geographers [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Simon Dalby
Sent: 04 October 2012 14:16
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Mars Curiosity
Folks:
The rovers, not just Curiosity, are an extraordinary technical accomplishment, and one that raises all sorts of questions about what exploration is now about. Is it geography if it is another planet is an old question, but one that is back on the agenda as those amazing photos get posted.
Kim Stanley Robinson's fictional discussion of all this in his Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars trilogy back in the 1990s is still worth a read on the logics of colonization and the cultural categories used in discussing such things.
Simon Dalby
Sent from my iPad
On 2012-10-04, at 8:25, Jon Croose <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> This is not my field, and I am just killing lunchtime before a seminar, but are there any geographers out there following the Mars Curiosity Rover?
>
> I am being blown away by daily pictures from Mars Curiosity posted on Twitter (@MarsCuriosity) and I have been struck by the descriptions of the Martian landscape, which are (unsurprisingly) reproductive of Earth-based terms.
>
> Seems to me that a Martian river valley is somehow not the same as an Earth river valley, even if the physical processes that produced it are the same. As space exploration develops, do we need a new way to describe extra-terrestrial landcsape features, and what might this look / feel / sound like? is such a description possible, or are we inevitably earthbound in our descriptions?
>
> I'm (becoming) a cultural geographer, so I'm way out of my depth here.....just thinking aloud really.....
>
> Jon Croose
> PhD student
> The Practices of Carnival: Community Culture and Place Exeter
> University
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