![]() ![]() As the essays in this special issue show, SF has been an important form from which artists and authors theorize the relationship between the world and the people in it. Her engagement with the affective, ideological, and embodied forms of difference fundamentally alters readerly relationships to the structural forces organizing our world. Although matters of identity have been at the center of SF from its earliest incarnations, the specificities of race, gender and sexual identity, ethnonationality, and ability take on transformative capacities in the hands of an author such as Butler. Butler's Black and woman-of-color feminist characters and plots set her SF apart from other entries in the genre. Perhaps the most crucial element of Butler's work was her insistence on figuring women of color, and Black women specifically, as heroes, characters who possessed great power because of and not despite the unique experiences of their marginalization: Dana, Lilith Ayapo, Lauren Olamina, Rye, each of these figures sought the "new suns" Butler promised in her unfinished manuscript Parable of the Trickster (1998). She centered the violence of difference in her work, but also the power and strength that come from it. She did so by melding the biological with the historical and the sociological, as in her novels Kindred (1979) and Dawn (1987) and her short story "Bloodchild" (1984). Her work explored the horizons of humanity, urging readers to consider what made humans human. Specifically, she highlighted Black characters, especially Black women, and positioned them at the center of speculative narratives. Speculative fictions (SF)-imaginative works that frame new worlds of possibility, including science fiction, fantasy, horror, magical realism, and other related forms-such as Butler's have probed at the bounds and limits of "all." Writing during the coalescence of the New Right, with its backlash against global movements for civil and human rights, feminist mobilization, new "waves" of immigration, and LGBTQ activism, Butler crafted an identity-conscious SF that flew in the face of mounting multicultural and assimilationist pressures. The notion of a "bolder, more equitable future for all" was certainly central to Butler's speculative fiction. Her work continues to inspire today's scientists and engineers across the globe-all in the name of a bolder, more equitable future for all. Her guiding principle, "When using science, do so accurately," is what the science team at NASA is all about. Butler, who not only grew up next door to in Pasadena, but also inspired millions with her visions of a science-based future. I can think of no better person to mark this historic landing site than Octavia E. In the accompanying press release, Kathryn Stack Morgan, deputy project scientist for Perseverance, said "Butler's protagonists embody determination and inventiveness, making her a perfect fit for the Perseverance rover mission and its theme of overcoming challenges." 1 Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for science, added, Butler Landing,'" announcing the successful touchdown on the surface of Mars. Butler," you'll find an official webpage with the banner "Welcome to 'Octavia E. JPL built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.įor more about Perseverance: mars.nasa.-Octavia E. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. ![]() The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). The University of Arizona in Tucson provided and operates HiRISE.Ī key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the spacecraft. ![]() MRO’s mission is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. The landing location is marked with a star in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Butler Landing,” after the science fiction author Octavia E. NASA has named the landing site of the agency’s Perseverance rover “Octavia E. ![]()
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