EXOGEO

The European Society for Exogeography and Space Studies

A multidisciplinary platform dedicated to rethinking outer space through the lenses of human experience, culture, and governance

EXOGEO is an emerging scientific initiative working towards the establishment of The European Society for Exogeography and Space Studies. Its governing bodies have not yet been constituted.

EXOGEO symbol About the EXOGEO symbol →
International Space Station solar arrays above Earth's horizon
NASA — International Space Station solar arrays above Earth, 2021

Outer space is not empty

Human activity has extended beyond Earth for decades. Landers, rovers, orbiters and relay networks operate across the Moon, Mars, asteroids and the outer planets. Landing sites have been named, surveyed, revisited and proposed for protection as cultural heritage. Earth orbit has been continuously occupied for more than half a century.

These places also enter public awareness as missions unfold. Surfaces become immersive panoramas; spacecraft operations can be followed and explored from home. Long before permanent settlement, extra-terrestrial places are already named, represented and incorporated into shared spatial knowledge.

Much of this presence is technological. Machines act, persist and extend human reach where humans are absent.

Perseverance rover and scientific instruments on the Martian surface
NASA/JPL-Caltech — Perseverance, Mars

Presence without people

Human presence beyond Earth does not require a human body on site. Satellites, rovers, autonomous stations and data infrastructures form a network through which extra-terrestrial places are reached, monitored and made significant.

They shape access, centrality and remoteness, and increasingly carry legal and symbolic weight, from heritage protection to stewardship of remote installations.

This technologically mediated presence can be understood as a techno-ecumene beyond Earth, with its own nodes, dependencies, exclusions and effects. And where there is human presence, there is geography.

Lunar map-style view with readable place names in the Mare Tranquillitatis region
EXOGEO prototype composite based on a supplied visual reference

How a space becomes a place

Geography has long examined how human presence turns spaces into places. Beyond Earth, the same process can be traced through naming, material use and organisation.

Territorialisation provides a useful grammar for these changes, and all three moments are already visible.

The first is naming. Naming brings a location into a shared spatial vocabulary. Tranquillity Base is a toponym, as are the thousands of craters, plains and ridges catalogued across the Solar System.

The second is material use. Rovers, landers, discarded equipment and decades of orbital infrastructure occupy, use and alter specific locations.

The third is organisation. Launch authorisation, orbital slot allocation and proposed exclusion zones assign different functions, rules and decision-makers to different parts of space.

Whether human presence is physical or technologically mediated, the process is already under way. The task is to read human action in environments beyond Earth as a spatial process in its own right.

Apollo 17 scientist-astronaut Harrison Schmitt collecting lunar samples at Taurus-Littrow
NASA — Harrison H. Schmitt collecting lunar samples, Apollo 17, Taurus-Littrow, 1972

What exogeography is

That is the problem exogeography addresses. Geography’s concepts were developed on Earth. They remain useful beyond it, but their terrestrial assumptions need to be tested and, where necessary, revised.

Exogeography is a conceptual framework and research agenda within human geography concerned with the conditions, forms and governance of human or technological presence in extra-terrestrial environments, and with how the material properties of those environments mediate mobility, habitability, territoriality, dependence, settlement and governance.

Exogeography overlaps with the Geographies of Outer Space, especially around the thresholds, corridors and infrastructures connecting Earth to other worlds. That broader field examines representation, infrastructure, power, law and environment across outer space; exogeography concentrates on extra-terrestrial environments and the forms of presence developing within them.

Gravity, radiation, vacuum, regolith and distance shape mobility, habitability, dependence, settlement and governance. Four recurring questions follow: thresholds, access, settlement and commons.

What we look at

Thresholds

The edges that must be crossed for any presence beyond Earth to begin, from the boundary of the atmosphere upward.

Access

The routes, waypoints and infrastructures that make some destinations reachable and others not.

Settlement

Habitability, population, and what it would mean to live somewhere beyond Earth.

Commons

How shared goods are defined, protected and distributed where ordinary public authority does not reach.

U.S. Geological Survey topographic map of Mars
U.S. Geological Survey — Topographic Map of Mars, 2003

Thresholds

The Kármán line, commonly placed around 100 kilometres above sea level, is widely used as a technical and conventional reference for the beginning of outer space, but international law does not establish a universally agreed boundary between national airspace and outer space. Trajectories, jurisdictions, dual-use infrastructures and security regimes nevertheless cross this threshold. Every presence beyond Earth begins by crossing such thresholds.

Access

Transfer trajectories, Lagrange points, cislunar waypoints and ground infrastructure determine what can be reached, by whom and at what cost. They create dependence and advantage, linking every extra-terrestrial destination to terrestrial launch and support systems.

Settlement

Population exogeography asks how extra-terrestrial environments could sustain settlement: mobility, population distribution, dependence, resource allocation, adaptation, selection and the status of settlers. Mission plans and policy documents are already shaping these categories, so they merit scrutiny before settlement becomes routine.

Commons

Orbital debris, resource extraction, unequal launch access and infrastructural enclosure raise a common question: how are shared goods defined, protected and distributed where territorial jurisdiction, planning and public ownership apply unevenly or not at all?

Why a society, and why “space studies”

The questions above cross disciplinary boundaries. Their technical dimensions are inseparable from law, politics, economics, culture, ethics and social life.

Thresholds involve law and policy; access depends on engineering, physics, data science and economics; settlement draws in medicine, psychology, anthropology and environmental research; commons raise political, legal and ethical questions, including whose cosmologies count.

Established fields include space law, space policy, astropolitics, strategic studies, space economy and the geographies of outer space. Emerging areas include space ethics, space humanities, astrosociology, space anthropology, philosophy of outer space and space archaeology. They meet STEM fields such as engineering, physics, astronomy, computer science, artificial intelligence and space medicine, while futures studies, risk analysis, data science, space and science diplomacy cut across these boundaries.

Exogeography adds a spatial method: it asks how presence organises space and how spatial conditions shape presence. “Space studies” in the name of the future Society marks this interdisciplinary meeting point. EXOGEO is building a community of people from different fields who share an interest in the human and geographical dimensions of space exploration.

Vision and Mission

We envision outer space as a shared and sustainable domain shaped by imagination, values and governance.

Sustained human presence beyond Earth will require physical and environmental solutions together with new social arrangements and forms of governance.

Our Vision

Outer space as a responsible, inclusive, and shared commons, preserved and sustained for generations to come.

Our Mission

We advance an interdisciplinary understanding of outer space by:

  • Promoting critical thinking on space as a human, cultural, and spatial frontier.
  • Fostering dialogue across the humanities, social sciences, and STEM disciplines.
  • Supporting research and education on the societal and environmental sustainability of space exploration.
  • Advancing a European and humanistic perspective in space policies and narratives.
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The Quadruple Filter

The four exogeographical themes above provide an analytical structure. The Quadruple Filter is a separate practical evaluative framework for assessing proposals and activities. Before supporting, proposing or assessing a course of action in outer space, we ask four questions: is it technically feasible, legally and ethically permissible, socially desirable, and systemically sustainable over time?

Technical feasibility

What can actually be done? STEM expertise, infrastructure, capacity and material constraints define the feasible.

Legal-ethical permissibility

What may legitimately be done? Law, philosophy and ethics clarify what can be justified, regulated and accepted.

Social desirability

What is desirable, and for whom? SSH perspectives ask who benefits, whose needs count and how effects are distributed.

Systemic sustainability

What remains viable over time? Systems analysis and futures studies examine cumulative effects, long-term viability and wider consequences.

Join the emerging EXOGEO community

Whether you are a student, researcher, artist, engineer, educator, entrepreneur, writer, policymaker, or simply passionate about outer space, you are welcome to register your interest in the emerging EXOGEO community, as long as you share our commitment to a sustainable and ethical vision of space exploration.

We are building a community of scholars, professionals, and enthusiasts — from both the humanities and the sciences — who see space not merely as a technical domain, but as a realm imbued with meaning, memory, and responsibility.

We value open, inclusive participation and the constant exchange of ideas across generations and disciplines, fostering a community where diverse perspectives can help shape the future of human space engagement.

Expressions of interest will help us build the founding community of the future Society. Formal membership will open once the Society has been constituted.

Planned membership categories

Ordinary members

Intended for individuals with an interest in outer space.

Student members

Intended for enrolled students interested in space and geographical studies.

Supporting members

Intended for institutions and organisations interested in supporting EXOGEO’s objectives and the future Society.

Honorary members

Intended to recognise individuals who have made distinguished contributions to the field.

Register your interest

This form records an expression of interest only; it does not constitute a membership application.

Privacy and GDPR

Data controller
EXOGEO Founding Group, an emerging scientific initiative working towards the establishment of The European Society for Exogeography and Space Studies. Contact: info@exogeo.org.

Data collected
The form collects name, email address, affiliation where provided, planned membership category of interest, the information entered in the free-text field, and confirmation of consent.

Purpose and legal basis
Personal data submitted through the expression-of-interest form are processed solely to record, assess and manage expressions of interest in EXOGEO and in the prospective founding community of the future Society, and to communicate with the interested person where necessary for that purpose. The legal basis for the processing is the data subject’s consent pursuant to Article 6(1)(a) GDPR.

How the data are handled
Submitted form data are transmitted by email to info@exogeo.org. The website does not store expression-of-interest submissions in a database or local file. Access to the received expressions of interest is limited to the EXOGEO Founding Group for the purposes described above.

Retention
Personal data are retained until the establishment of the Society or until the expression of interest is withdrawn, whichever occurs first. The continued necessity of retaining expressions of interest will in any event be reviewed after 24 months.

Withdrawal of consent
Consent may be withdrawn at any time by contacting info@exogeo.org. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

Your rights
Subject to the conditions set by the GDPR, you may request access to, rectification or erasure of your personal data, restriction of processing, and data portability. You may also lodge a complaint with the competent data protection supervisory authority. To exercise your rights, contact info@exogeo.org.

Please do not include special categories of personal data or other sensitive information in the free-text field unless strictly necessary.

Contact

EXOGEO — emerging scientific initiative working towards The European Society for Exogeography and Space Studies

info@exogeo.org exogeo.org