Science and technology studies (STS) and critical cartography are both asking questions about the ontological fixity of maps and other scientific objects. This paper examines how a group of NASA computer scientists who call themselves The Mapmakers conceptualizes and creates maps in service of different commitments. The maps under construction are those of alien Mars, produced through partnerships that NASA has established with Google and Microsoft. With the goal of bringing an experience of Mars to as many people as possible, these maps influence how we imagine our neighbouring planet. This paper analyzes two attributes of the map, evident in both its representation and the attending cartographic practices: a sense of Mars as dynamic and a desire for a democratic experience of Mars in which up-to-date Mars data can be intuitively accessed not only by scientists but by lay users as well. Whereas a democratic Mars promises users the ability to decide how to interact with the map and understand Mars, dynamic Mars imposes a more singular sense of Mars as a target of continued robotic and maybe even human exploration. Because maps of Mars have a different (and arguably less complex) set of social and political commitments than those of Earth, they help us see how different goals contradict and complement each other in matters of exploration and state-craft relevant both to other worlds and our own.
...More
Article
Lane, K. Maria D.;
(2005)
Geographers of Mars: Cartographic Inscription and Exploration Narrative in Late Victorian Representations of the Red Planet
(/isis/citation/CBB000650563/)
Article
William Rankin;
(June 2017)
Zombie projects, negative networks, and multigenerational science: The temporality of the International Map of the World
(/isis/citation/CBB691803189/)
Article
David Reinecke;
Jordan Bimm;
(April 2022)
The maintenance of ambiguity in Martian exobiology
(/isis/citation/CBB480002964/)
Article
Chambers, Ian;
(2013)
A Cherokee Origin for the “Catawba” Deerskin Map (c. 1721)
(/isis/citation/CBB001320351/)
Article
Rickenbacher, Martin;
(2007)
Ferdinand Rudolf Hassler und die Vermessung der Schweiz, 1791--1803
(/isis/citation/CBB001024667/)
Article
Bosse, David;
(2000)
“To Promote Useful Knowledge”: An Accurate Map of the Four New England States by John Norman and John Coles
(/isis/citation/CBB000671380/)
Article
Akerman, James R.;
(2015)
A View from America: Map Collecting, `Treasure-House' Libraries, and American Civic Influences on the History of Cartography
(/isis/citation/CBB001551603/)
Chapter
Edney, Matthew H.;
(2011)
Public Discourse and Printed Maps of the Kennebec River, 1753--1755
(/isis/citation/CBB001221181/)
Book
O'Rourke, Karen;
(2013)
Walking and Mapping: Artists as Cartographers
(/isis/citation/CBB718574285/)
Book
John Delaney;
(2015)
Nova Caesarea: A Cartographic Record of the Garden State 1666-1888
(/isis/citation/CBB367782868/)
Book
Herman J. Viola;
N. King;
Ralph E. Ehrenberg;
(2015)
Mapping the West with Lewis & Clark
(/isis/citation/CBB738139428/)
Book
Jeffrey P. Stone;
(2019)
British and American News Maps in the Early Cold War Period, 1945–1955: Mapping the "Red Menace"
(/isis/citation/CBB115554224/)
Article
Graham, Paul K.;
(2011)
Edward Arista Vincent: Antebellum Immigrant, Cartographer, and Architect
(/isis/citation/CBB001231358/)
Book
Schulten, Susan;
(2012)
Mapping the Nation: History and Cartography in Nineteenth-Century America
(/isis/citation/CBB001201279/)
Article
Junqueira, Mary Anne;
(2012)
Os objetivos da circunavegação da U.S. Exploring Expedition (1838--1842): longitude, mapeamento náutico e instituição das coordenadas geográficas modernas
(/isis/citation/CBB001420571/)
Chapter
Brückner, Martin;
(2011)
The Spectacle of Maps in British America, 1750--1800
(/isis/citation/CBB001221185/)
Book
Timothy Barney;
(2015)
Mapping the Cold War: Cartography and the Framing of America's International Power
(/isis/citation/CBB005380302/)
Book
Stephen J Hornsby;
(2017)
Picturing America: The Golden Age of Pictorial Maps
(/isis/citation/CBB623201308/)
Article
Bosse, David;
(2011)
Matthew Clark and the Beginnings of Chart Publishing in the United States
(/isis/citation/CBB001221476/)
Article
Navakas, Michele Currie;
(2013)
Island Nation: Mapping Florida, Revising America
(/isis/citation/CBB001200576/)
Be the first to comment!