The Space Chair is recruiting 4 researchers for the start of the 2024 academic year (see call for applications for a PhD student and 3 post-docs). Scientific Director Stéphanie Ruphy explains the main lines of research to be developed over the next three years.
1) Since January 2024, you’ve been Scientific Director of the Space Chair. Can you tell us about the origins of this chair and its objectives?
When I was asked to take on the role of Scientific Director, the Chair project was already well advanced, under the impetus of Stéphane Israël, President of the ENS Foundation and Chairman and CEO of Arianespace. The primary objective of the Chair is to develop cutting-edge, multidisciplinary research into emerging issues with a strong societal impact on the relationship between Earth and space. This research will feed into awareness-raising initiatives aimed at a wider public, beyond the academic world, in order to raise public awareness of the many issues, particularly environmental and geopolitical, raised by human activities in outer space. Indeed, we are all more directly concerned than is often imagined by the rapid changes in our relationship with Earth’s near suburbs since the turn of the century.
Finally, the third objective of the Chair is to use its training programs to help PSL students develop new vocations: the aim is to attract talent to the field of space, in all its dimensions, from fundamental research to the economic and institutional sectors, by making the new societal, scientific and technological challenges facing the sector more visible. I’m thinking, for example, of the recent changes in innovation methods used by economic players in the space industry.
2) What is the originality of this Chair?
The main originality of the Chair is that it approaches the Earth-Space relationship through the prism of the human and social sciences, in constant dialogue with scientific and technological developments in the space sector. Indeed, it would be impossible to deal with this subject without, for example, integrating the strong physical and technological constraints that characterize the possible uses of space.
This broad-spectrum interdisciplinarity is reflected in the diversity of PSL research communities (CERES, CIENS, CIEE, Observatoire de Paris, Department of Geosciences, ENS Chair in Geopolitics of Risk), which are directly involved in the Chair via its scientific steering committee.
On a different note, another of the Chair’s particularities was the recruitment last month of a project manager, Stéphanie Braquehais, who has had a rich professional career in journalism and communications prior to this position, and who will thus be able to effectively support the researchers in achieving the second objective mentioned above, that of bringing space issues into public debate.
3) How does your multidisciplinary academic background (astrophysics and philosophy of science, after a degree in aeronautical engineering) reflect the identity of this Chair?
As the Chair’s ambition is to bring to life the strong interdependencies between the human and social dimensions and the scientific and technological dimensions of the challenges raised by activities in Space, my dual culture should facilitate, or at least I hope it will, joint work between players from different cultures. And on a more personal level, I’m delighted to have the opportunity to renew my ties with professional circles that gave me such fond memories of my youth, by taking on the scientific direction of this Chair.
4) Can you describe the Chair’s main research themes?
The Chair’s research activities will be structured around three axes (described in greater detail here).
The first axis will focus on the evolution of representations of Space, in particular in connection with the diversification of uses of outer space and developments in scientific knowledge of the solar system and beyond (discoveries of exoplanets, space exploration missions to other planets in the solar system, etc.).
The research carried out in the second area will attempt to answer the following questions: how can we conceive of Space as a “territory or common good” for Humanity, and what are the resulting tensions? The Chair will focus in particular on the following double tension: tension between the ambition of a common good and the logic of market appropriation (of natural resources and of Space as a circulation zone); tension between the ambition of a common good and the use of Space as a stake and lever of sovereignty. In other words, how can we ensure the emergence of Space as a common good, in the economic and legal sense, in the face of, on the one hand, the multiplication of private uses of Space and, on the other, the ambitions of States? Finally, two questions that speak for themselves in 2024 will be at the heart of the third axis: What contribution can space make to preserving the planet? And what are the sustainable uses of Space?
5) You are preparing to recruit young researchers. What profiles are you looking for in priority, and what career prospects can these researchers expect through your Chair?
The calls for applications (see here) are very open, both in terms of experience and disciplines (economics, history, geopolitics, political science, philosophy, law, sociology, cybersecurity, geosciences, climate and environmental sciences, earth sciences, etc.). We are looking for young researchers for doctorates and post-doctorates, as well as more experienced profiles, as the Chair could, for example, welcome a lecturer or professor on secondment for three years. In all cases, the aim is to join a multi-disciplinary research team and bring it to life. Candidates may, of course, already have worked on space, but not necessarily: the Chair is also intended to encourage researchers to take up space as a new field of study.
I’ll give just one example among many, in connection with the Chair’s second research theme: research in various disciplines (law, economics, philosophy, political science, etc.) is looking at the notion of the “commons” and the risk of a “tragedy of the commons” as part of the debate on good governance of the oceans. Such approaches are also potentially relevant to Space.
As for career prospects, the Chair will give access, beyond academic players in the research fields concerned, to all players in the French space value chain, who support this Chair as patrons (ArianeGroup, ArianeGroup, Airbus, ThalèsAlenia, Safran, Air Liquide, Sodern, Eutelsat, CNES and GIFAS), and with whom very regular exchanges are scheduled.
6) Why is it crucial to raise public awareness of the issues addressed by the Chair?
Space has always been very present in the common imagination, and even more so since its direct exploration by mankind on various scales (manned flights, space missions to other planets, exoplanet discoveries, etc.). However, there can be a gap between the representations of Space that populate this imaginary world and the reality of the uses of Space and the issues they raise today. These uses are becoming increasingly diversified, driven by a variety of new players, particularly in the private sector, and can have an impact on the lives of each and every one of us. Just think of our dependence on everyday technologies for connectivity or spatial orientation via satellites, or – albeit still for a tiny minority of us – the development of space tourism.
The use of space for Earth observation also continues to grow, and is playing a more crucial role than ever in the development of possible responses to the climatic and environmental challenges that concern us all, as well as cybersecurity and military security issues. Outer space has thus become the terrain of action for a variety of players, whose agendas impact all citizens in a multitude of ways, and raise urgent questions of good governance and the regulation of uses. And since we live in a democracy, we can only hope that citizens will be able to take greater ownership of these issues, so as to influence desirable developments in our societies’ relationship with Space. The Chair hopes to contribute to this in its own way, through its awareness-raising activities and public debates.
