Picardi I., Serino M. Multi-planetary infrastructures and hybrid explorations: An analysis of structures of epistemic enrolment in online discourses on space missions

Authors: Ilenia Picardi, Marco Serino

Abstract

This paper explores the sociotechnical imaginaries involved in the construction of technoscientific knowledge as it is conveyed by space science institutions through websites and social media. The study focuses on the discourses by which Nasa promotes the Artemis programme, aimed at achieving a new human landing on the Moon. The study is based on a mixed-methods perspective that combines the social world framework and social network analysis to examine the relational structures at play in the discourses disseminated by Nasa through several online spaces observed between March and November 2024. Using a methodological protocol developed to study epistemic structures, we analyse the discursive assemblage constituted of knowledge claims on space missions and the (heterogeneous) actors discursively enrolled to sustain those claims. Through this analytical framework, we reconstruct the epistemic structures underlying Nasa’s discourse on Artemis and the intertwining of technoscientific elements and sociotechnical imaginaries relevant to these structures.

Keywords: Nasa, space missions, online discourse, social network analysis

DOI: https://doi.org/10.13131/unipi/35ag-yv57

Notes on contributors

ILENIA PICARDI is an assistant professor of Sociology at the University of Naples Federico II
Email: ilenia.picardi@unina.it
MARCO SERINO is an assistant professor of Sociology at the University of Naples Federico II
Email: marco.serino@unina.it