On June 21st - 26th 2003, the first ever conference session on space archaeology was convened at the World Archaeological Congress 5 in Washington DC. World Archaeological Congresses are based around themes, with sessions sitting under the themes. In the theme The Heavens Above: Archaeoastronomy, Space Heritage and SETI, there was a session on space heritage. Below is the session abstract.
Space Heritage And The Potential For Exoarchaeology In The Solar System: National And International Perspectives
Organized By
John Campbell (Australia) and Beth O’Leary (USA)
Session Details
Space Heritage is an appropriate term for the sites and artefacts associated with space exploration which we humans are creating both on Earth and off-world on other bodies such as the Moon and Mars. Although some sites on Earth might be protected by virtue of their continued use by large government and non-government organisations, sites which are off world are not as yet protected, at least not properly.
The United Nations Outer Space Treaty recognises the artefacts and other so-called “space junk” on the Moon, Mars etc. as the property of the country which sent the spacecraft or probes to their destinations. However, very much as with Antarctica on Earth, land in space can not be owned by any particular country. This is why the “Lunar Legacy Project” was carried out and partly funded by NASA, namely to assess what is needed to protect the first landing site on the Moon, Apollo 11’s Tranquility Base. Some large private companies are already intending to send robotic missions to bring back artefact samples from other sites such as Apollo 12’s landing site (they were initially intending to sample Apollo 11 but have backed away from that proposal).
When people colonise Mars, as they will someday, and perhaps the Moon, there should be international agreements in place to protect at least the more significant sites and artefacts from wanton tourism and “souveniring”, as well as uncontrolled or unmonitored scientific sampling. On Earth archaeologists normally obtain permission from the relevant communities and authorities before carrying out excavations. Excavating or sampling sites off-world should also require permission, though the difficulty of course is from whom?
There are also sites and artefacts on Venus and further afield. Those on Venus are undergoing severe corrosion. Sites have been created on some of the asteroids as well, such as Eros, and they will be created on some of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, such as Europa and Titan (both of which are of interest because they might harbour life), and eventually further out in the Solar System. Artefacts in orbit round Earth and Mars, as well as eventually elsewhere, should also be considered, even if most of the items now in orbit round the Earth might be considered “space junk”.
This session has four papers, invited commentaries, open discussion of the issues and a workshop which will attempt to come up with some concrete proposals for the development of space heritage legislation and protocols. The urgent need for a new UN Space Heritage Treaty will also be addressed and a draft proposal planned.
Presentations
Assessing and Managing Human Space Heritage in the Solar System: The Current State of Play and Some Proposals
(School of Anthropology, Archaeology and Sociology, James Cook University, Cairns, Australia)
Cultural Heritage Management in Orbit
Dr Alice C. Gorman (Environmental Protection Agency, Rockhampton, Australia)
The Cultural Landscape of Space
Dr Alice C. Gorman (Environmental Protection Agency, Rockhampton, Australia)
Lunar Archaeology: A View of Federal U.S. Historic Preservation Law on the Moon
Dr Beth L. O’Leary (Department of Sociology and Anthropology, New Mexico State University, USA), Ralph Gibson (Kell House Museum, USA), John Versluis (North Platte Valley Museum, Gering, USA) and Leslie Brown (Department of Physics, Astronomy and Geophysics, Connecticut College, USA)
Session Time
Thursday Date 26th June
Time 9-11AM
In this post, I tell the story of the events leading up to my departure for Washington DC to present at the conference.
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