In 2003 I began work on a research project that has taken me to places that I never imagined: the cultural heritage of space exploration. Now I am determined to bring to light the secrets at the heart of the Space Age.
It just occurred to me that I have been writing this blog for 20 years. My first post was on July 4, 2004, about the International Space University in Adelaide. I'd heard about this new thing called blogging - short for web logging - and I thought I'd give it a crack. I was unemployed at the time, having resigned from my job the previous year in order to pursue space archaeology, which I'd been plugging away at on the side until that point. I was dirt poor and had no idea what I was going to do to survive.
The tagline of the blog is the original one. Every time I've thought I should update it, something holds me back. It's still largely true! While I've changed the appearance of the blog from time to time, some things have stayed the same.
These are my top ten most read posts, excluding a couple which were attacked by bots who artificially increased the statistics.
At a drunken dinner party, we decided to find out who the patron saint of astronauts is. The answer: St Joseph of Cupertino, and his story is rather interesting!
When the subject came up in online spaces like Twitter, members of the (mostly) male class would just go bananas about how language didn't matter. (If it didn't matter so much, why were they so ANGRY about it?) I tried to explain why it mattered, and how easy it was to do - if you cared enough.
This was about how the apparatus at children's playgrounds - swings, slides, merry-go-rounds, etc, were ways for children to adapt to 1 Earth gravity by learning how not to fall, and the consequences of falling, and to experience higher gravities through the acceleration provided by many of the apparatus. I aimed to foreground gravity rather than assuming it.
I've been obsessed with cable ties for a long time. I and my friend and colleague, Aylza Donald, made a conference poster about how they migrated from aerospace industry to being found in every household across many lands. Catch the #cabletielove and feel welcome to cite us!
Shadows have been another long-term obsession. You can read other posts about them here and here. I think people liked this one because it talks about the uncanny elements of living in space.
I'd always wanted to make a pun on spacecraft! Here is a post with various crafty things and people, and a surprise ending. Or should I say a 'happy ending'?
This was written as part of a writing festival curated by Nicola Twilley at GOOD magazine:
Food for Thinkers is a week-long, distributed, online conversation looking at food-writing from as wide and unusual a variety of perspectives as possible.
I decided to have a crack at space food, stringing together some ideas and facts that had been floating around in my head. I used some of the post later in my book. In case anyone disputes the value of blogs, I have found mine invaluable for testing out ideas that later become highly relevant, even though I didn't know it at the time.
A USB stick lobbed out of the International Space Station was the starting point for some musings about digital artefacts, the burning of space junk, and the anthropological theory of rites of passage.
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So there you go. I know my blog is clunky and terribly designed. Some of it is the limitations of Blogger, a platform which has been around almost as long as blogging itself, but most of it is my lack of ability. Blogger has served me well for twenty years of talking crap on the internet.
I haven't been the most serious blogger, only writing when the mood takes me. Some years this has been very little. But it has been my constant companion as I have developed some of my core ideas in space archaeology.
I have had some small impact I think - the blog is archived as a significant scientific publication by the National Library of Australia.
In my next post I'll list my top ten personal favourites.
In this post I looked at a few weird bot-generated videos (or AI-generated videos? I can't tell!) about space archaeology - they were both slightly alarming but also a bit exciting as they demonstrated that space archaeology has made it! People (and bots) know what it is!
There's a few more of them. I found this one particularly interesting as it's about how you can pursue a career in space archaeology. Let's break it down.
Careers in Astronomy: Space Archaeologist
Today, we're diving into the fascinating world of space archaeology - a unique blend of astronomy, archaeology and history.
Well sort of yes and sort of no. Space archaeology is archaeology, although like any historical archaeology, research in documents and archives are part of your suite of methods. You do also need some understanding of astronomy, astrodynamics and planetary science. It's not a career in astronomy, though. There are some astronomers who call themselves archaeologists because they are looking back in time at earlier periods of the universe. This makes the common mistake of assuming that archaeology is about old things. And I get it - it's in the title and some types of archaeology are about the far distant past. However, the definition of archaeology that archaeologists use is that it's about how humans use material culture to create societies and adapt to change over time - and this means recent time, or the present.
Archaeological theories and methods have a lot of application for how you might identify 'cultural' behaviour from astronomical data, but you'd still need a degree in archaeology to understand how to do this.
Roles and responsibilities
As a space archaeologist, your mission is to uncover the mysteries of the cosmos by analyzing ancient artefacts, spacecraft and debris left behind in space. You're like a cosmic detective, solving the puzzles of our celestial past.
Space archaeology isn't really on a cosmic scale as it concerns the human record of engagement with space. It's not, I repeat not, about alien artefacts. Archaeology shares with SETI the problems of interpretation - to try and understand other minds wether they are aliens or from another culture. You could look at the 1940s and 50s as another culture! The past is a foreign country - they do things differently there, as LP Hartley famously said. I discuss this in my foreword to Speaking Beyond Earth. Perspectives on Messaging Across Deep Space and Cosmic Time so I might as well give it a plug here.
The 'ancient artefacts' could mean ancient asttonomical-related material culture on Earth - how humans imagined, theorised and engaged with the heavens. That's called archaeoastronomy (not space archaeology).
So you're not going to be looking at cosmic or celestial artefacts, but spacecraft and debris left behind by humans. And believe me, there is plenty here to keep you fascinated!
Skills and qualifications
A curious mind, strong analytic skills, knowledge of astronomy, familiarity with space technology, and attention to detail.
Well those are all good things to have, although I'd argue that a curious mind, strong analytic skills and attention to detail are good to have for any job. (They're not qualifications though, see below). Knowledge of space stuff is essential. I spend a lot of time reading engineering documents and articles in space and planetary science journals too. It helps that I have high school physics. chemistry and maths.
Education and training
A background in astronomy, archaeology or a related field is essential. Many space archaeologists hold advanced degrees in these areas.
Yeah, nah. You need a degree in archaeology to be a space archaeologist. Preferably a minimum of honours or masters. I'm sorry to tell you this but you can't be a space archaeologist with a degree in astronomy, as you won't know any of the method, theory, and perhaps most importantly, ethics of archaeology. In the US archaeology comes under the umbrella of anthropology, so anthropology is acceptable. A degree in cultural heritage management, museum studies or conservation is also helpful.
Salary
The salary can vary widely depending on your experience and the organization you work for. It can range from $50, 00 to $100, 000 or more per year.
They don't say what currency of course! I guess this might be true of any entry level job. But you won't find space archaeologist as a category of job because to my knowledge, there is no-one currently employed anywhere as a space archaeologist. If such a job should be advertised, I want first dibs!
All space archaeologists currently work as academics, museum curators, or heritage consultants, but space archaeology is their research area or just a part of their job. I would say we're mostly academics. My job is mainly teaching, for example. The research component is space archaeology. I don't get to work at it all day, although that would be my dream.
Work environment
Christina Koch on the International Space Station, 2020. Credit: NASA
Space archaeologists work in a mix of environments, from labs analyzing dara to observatories observing the skies. You might also have the chance to collaborate with space agencies or research institutions.
You won't be working in an observatory or scanning the skies. You might use data from planetary observation or space junk monitoring though, and you might sit a lab at a computer analyzing data, such as that collected by the International Space Station Archaeological Project. You'll likely be part of a research institution, such as a university. And it's highly likely that you'll have to be talking to a space agency at some point.
Space archeologist
Your work helps us understand the history of space exploration and the artifacts left behind by humanity's journey into the cosmos. It contributes to our knowledge of our place in the universe. Space archeology is a thrilling career that combines history, science and exploration. If you're passionate about uncovering the secrets of space, and preserving our cosmic heritage, this might be the perfect path for you.
Some years ago, I had to make a costume for an International Space University party and thought that I would go as a space archaeologist. I found a yellow fluoro work vest and used a black texta (sharpie) to draw a logo of the fictional Institute of Space Archaeology. Then I made a name tag, using an old plastic sleeve from a conference, and invented the character Tasmania Smith, Director of the lunar office of the Institute of Space Archaeology (ISA). At the bottom of the name tag, I wrote Tasmania Smith's email address:
tsmith@isa.luna
This is possibly the first ever specific lunar domain name.
It was just to add a little authenticity to the character, but when I came across the photo again recently, it made me wonder if provision had been made yet for off-Earth domains. I went looking for academic or industry literature on this topic. I looked in Google Scholar, the NASA Technical Report Server, and Arxiv, and generally puddled around on the internet. As far as I can tell, there is no literature on how domain names would work in space.
Certainly at this stage astronauts just use the email addresses of their countries or employers - there is no specific International Space Station address, for example - crew use nasa.gov, or esa or Russia or whatever. Interplanetary internet connects spacecraft of all kinds with Earth and each other.
But it seems there is no Domain Name System (DNS) for space yet. The Interational Standardization Organiztion is responsible for domain names on Earth. ISO 3166-1 alpha 2 establishes the two-letter country codes. So I suppose they could do the space codes too.
Eventually, each planet or asteroid might have its own suffix. There doesn't seem to be any commonly used abbreviations for the planets, even by the International Astronomical Union. You could make an abbreviation out of the Latin or Greek names, but the trick is to make sure that they aren't duplicating national ones. And yes, celestial body names are an expression of European hegemony and colonialism, as are many country names, but they are commonly understood at least.
So I went though the list of two-letter country-code top-level domains to find those that might be unused and available for planets. A harder task than it seems! Many of the most obvious two-letter codes already belong to a country. What's left isn't always the most intuitive thing to call a planet. However, there are so few planets compared to countries that perhaps a whole word or abbreviation would work. For the Moon and Mars, all the obvious two-letter codes are already in use.
So we might have:
Mercury - He, short for Hermes, the Greek equivalent of Mercury
Venus - Ap, short for Aphrodite
Earth - Ea, or Te for Tellus, or Gaia as a whole word
Moon - Luna
Mars - Mars
Jupiter - Jv, short for Jove
Saturn - Cu, short for Cronus, the Greek equivalent of Saturn
Neptune - Po, short for Poseidon
Uranus - Ur, not taken for any country yet!
Pluto - Pu. the closest available abbreviation
Sun - Sun
For Moons other than Earth's, the relevant planet's domain can be used. Just to be precise, we might define the spatial extent of the domain as the planet's Hill Sphere. It's likely that we wouldn't need anything beyond Mars in any case.
There might need to be special ones for spacecraft moving between different planets. I'm not sure why they'd need one, but perhaps they have human or AI inhabitants. A mobile domain might present its own issues to resolve.
In the early years of lunar habitation, crew or inhabitants will still likely use national or agency domain names. The Outer Space Treaty makes nations responsible for the activities of their citizens in space. The point at which you'll need a lunar domain name is when there is lunar government separate to Earth. One of the first acts of a lunar rebellion might be to assert independence by declaring a new domain with its own code. This may also imply the presence of local servers.
A private corporation providing a domain server might get to apply its code to a planet or moon. So keep an eye on what the space billionaires are doing - this might be a step is asserting political dominance.
Maybe there will also be the equivalent of gmail or yahoo in space. Maybe there will be open source or citizen higher level domains.
Don't ask me how this works in practice, I'm not sure I understand the technical aspects!
Space archaeology is so recognised as a type of archaeology now that there is a slew of weird bot-made videos about it, very disembodied, however, as if space archaeology is not a thing done by actual real people who are space archaeologists. Some of these videos are very dodgy indeed, but others, to be honest, are not bad! Here is a selection:
What is space archaeology?
Do you know, this is such a good definition of space archaeology that I would recomment it for students. The text reads:
In archaeology, space archaeology is the research-based study of various human-made items found in space, their interpretation as clues to the adventures humanity has experienced in space, and their preservation as cultural heritage.
Space archaeology: where no trowel has gone before
This video is talking about a project we published our first results from recently in an article in PLOS One - a survey of the ISS using photography. They haven't exactly got our results right but they have picked up on the fact that the ISS is a pretty messy place. So it's really weird to have no mention of us! However, I do like the fancy graphics - it would have been great to be able to afford this type of science communication! Here is the script:
Space archaeology, where no trowel has gone before. So apparently archaeologists got bored of digging in the dirt and thought hey, why not space. Thus we have the first archaeology project aboard the ISS. Astronauts use space like the rest of us, use a junk drawer ignoring the design and creating cosmic chaos. The photos show astronauts turning neat space stations into floating garages. There's no ancient treasure up there unless you count misplaced tools and forgotten snack wrappers but hey at least now we know that even in space humans are just as good at cluttering up their environment. Maybe in the sequel we'll find out how the aliens feel about all this.
Unveiling Cosmic Relics: Space Archaeology Explored!
It's surprising just how much this video gets right! It refers to my work and those of others such as Bill Rathje and PJ Capelotti on the archaeology and heritage of orbital debris, and goes on to talk about archaeology on the Moon, which my friend and colleague Beth Laura O'Leary pioneered. Importantly, it mentions a goal a few of us space archeologists have: to contribute to the planning of future missions.
This is gonna blow your mind. High above us, orbiting silently, are relics of human ingenuity - leftovers from space missions past. I'm talking about space archaeology. Imagine this: thousands of satrellites, spent rocket stages and even tools dropped by astronauts, all swirling around Earth at mind-bending speeds. These aren't just pieces of metal: they tell the story of our journey into space. Each piece of debris has its own tale, from the very first satellite, Sputnik, to the sophisticated telescopes and exploratory probes we send out today. And guess what: it's not just about what's floating around Earth. On the Moon, there are abandoned lunar rovers, footprints, and even a falcon feather left there by astronaut David Scott to demonstrate Galileo's theory of gravity. Space archaeologists are like detectives, piecing together the history of space exploration from these artefacts. They help us learn from past missions to better plan future voyages. And perhaps most fascinating of all, they remind us of our first tentative steps into the cosmos.
Unveiling Secrets of Space: The Fascinating World of Space Archaeology
When I started working on space archaeology, I was looking at the impacts of rocket launch sites on Indigenous people (you can read about it here and here) and the archaeology and heritage value of space junk in Earth orbit (here and here). I feel I've had an impact when a weird bot-thing makes a video about my research! Here is the script:
Now when you think of archaeology you might imagine digging up ancient ruins or unearthing forgotten artifacts but space archaeology - it involves studying defunct satellites and man-made debris left floating in the vast expanse of space. This might seem like an oddity but it's truly remarkable what these relics can tell us about our own activities in space.
Space Archaeology
Apart from an egregious overuse of 'cosmic', 'celestial' and 'civilizations', the originator of this video 'Multifarious King' has said some things about space archaeology that I quite like. For example:
Celestial archaeologists become custodians of cosmic heritage, piecing together the narrative of ancient celestial cultures from the fragments scattered across the cosmic expanse. Yet, amid the cosmic excavation, the celestial archaeologists grapple not only with the challenges of interpreting cosmic artifacts but also with the cosmic responsibility of preserving the cosmic legacy. Ethical considerations, the pursuit of historical truth, and the cosmic echoes of the impermanence of cosmic civilizations infuse the cosmic investigations with purpose and wisdom.
I would be more interested if they had not used virtually the same text to do space exploration, space law (I particularly love the celestial courtrooms), space nuclear power, space technology, space telescopes, space-based radar, space-based solar power, spacecraft design, and spacecraft propulsion! Everybody gets a microgravity or cosmic ballet (nice). Spacecraft propulsion might be the most out there, claiming that gods provide propulsion! After this one, Multifarious King moves on to engineering with a version of the same text. Hard to know what the motivation or value is!
This video is also an example of category confusion, confusing space archaeology with astronomy, astrobiology and exoarchaeology.
A conclusion
To be honest I find these videos to be a bit uncanny - the familiar made strange - they induce a weird sensation of mental nausea. It's because, I think, they refer to me and my colleagues like we're not real. I feel like they threaten my sense of having a stable identity when it can be so easily appropriated. It is kind of funny but having put them together in one place I feel their weirdness more. So there you are.
Also if you want to find out more about space archaeology you can refer to my handy (though slightly out-of-date) bibliography.
I'm not sure where I first heard the song Sugar Water by Cibo Matto but I think it might have been on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which I was rewatching late in the evenings one summer during covid. I liked its cruisiness and the lyrics, which caught my attention:
A woman in the moon is singing to the earth
A woman in the moon is singing to the earth
La la la, la la la la la la La la la, la la la la la la La la la, la la la la la la La la la, la la la la la la
Who doesn't like a la la la? But what struck me most was how the song had inverted our relationship to the Moon. Usually, we sing or howl (if you're a dog) to the Moon; we look for the rabbit, duck, old man or old woman; we confide in it; we take its light on Earth and use it for concealment or illumination; we benefit from the effects of gravity which cause the tides. The Moon is ours for what we can make it.
'A woman' could be one woman among many, or the woman in the Moon; it's not clear. I like the indeterminism of it. It's about her relationship to Earth: she's singing maybe not to us, but to the planet she sees in the black sky. It's about the meaning Earth has for her. Maybe the la la las are a lullabye. They feel soothing and affectionate to me. Maybe her words are indistinct by the time they reach us and all we hear is the melody.
It's also random, like you just happen to go outside, and you gradually become aware that there is a song on the air, and it's coming from someone singing on the Moon. Just a woman who happens to be there.
Cultural landscapes are a powerful way of conceptualising the interaction of human activities with the space environment. From the surface of Earth to the far reaches of the solar system, there are many levels of designed, organic, and associative landscapes, from rocket launch sites to the Voyager spacecraft in interstellar space. You could say that the entire solar system is now a cultural landscape. I want to focus briefly on two particular landscapes, geostationary orbit and the surface of the Moon.
Voyager 1. Image courtesy of NASA.
Geostationary orbit is located about 35, 000 km above the surface of Earth and until recently, when Elon Musk started launching the Starlink megaconstellation into Low Earth Orbit, this is where most of our telecommunications satellites were located. There are currently about 580 spacecraft situated here.
When you look at photos of space junk around Earth, the GEO orbit looks like a faint ring, recalling the ring systems of the outer planets. The ring is maintained by station-keeping manoeuvres; hence it is a product of engineering decisions and could be called a designed landscape. A cultural landscape approach sees cultural value in the structure of the ring, rather than dismissing the satellites as an aggregate of unconnected spacecraft.
Representation of space debris, showing the GEO ring. Image courtesy of NASA
Since the USSR probe Luna 2 crashed on the Moon in 1959, there are now over 100 locations with human material culture, ranging from robotic probes, crashed orbiters, and rovers, to crewed landing sites.
A key feature of the selenoscape is the interplay between light, dust and shadows. The shadows of the human-made artefacts, with their sharp angles and textural range, are very different to those cast by craters and rocks.
The banded bootprints left by the 12 Apollo moonwalkers are another novel texture on the lunar surface. Space archaeologists have compared the Apollo 11 bootprints to the Laetoli footprints, made by bipedal hominin ancestors 3.6 million years ago in volcanic ash. As cultural landscapes, the Apollo sites show how low-gravity and barely any atmosphere shaped the human activities which took place there, and the lasting impression in the shadowscape created by the artefacts they left behind.
Neil Armstrong's bootprints, 1969. Image courtesy of NASA
Critically, a cultural landscape lens encourages a view of space as dynamic rather than an empty desolation that you can just remove junk from to return it to a former state.
To finish, I want to argue that space is not a special case. Rather, we should look at terrestrial cultural landscapes in a solar system context, to see them as part of a multitude of possible planetary and interplanetary environments, most of which have not yet come into being.
Note: this is from my webinar presentation at the International Council on Monuments and Sites International Scientific Committee on Cultural Landscapes, on 17 April.
This case study shows how the Burra Charter (2013) significance criteria can be applied to a heritage feature on the Moon, the astronaut bootprints which are part of the Apollo 11 site. The bootprints are one of the most well-known human traces and have been the focus of recent campaigns for greater recognition of lunar heritage.
Historic significance: high.
The bootprints are associated with a unique event, the first human expedition to another world; with the astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, who are rightly celebrated for this achievement; and with the historical processes of the Cold War ‘space race’ and early years of space exploration. The prints are the first human trace fossils outside Earth.
Scientific significance: high
The astronaut boot soles were an experiment in themselves: the bands were designed to convey information about regolith depth and reflectance. This is partially why so many photographs of the bootprints were taken. Further research could use them to assess and better understand surface processes and regolith behaviour.
Their placement shows where the astronauts walked over their two and half hours on the surface, and hence define the limits of the site. Images show that the prints are layered or superimposed, which enables a time sequence of activities to be derived. Their depth and angle indicate something about the gait adopted by the crew to maintain an upright posture in hypogravity, as well as the depth of lunar dust over the local area.
A major research potential of the prints is a comparison of the six landing sites, over which the duration of surface became progressively longer, and the succeeding crews had the benefit of learning from the preceding ones (Gorman 2016).
As a recent geological disturbance to the regolith, the sharp ridges of the prints create a baseline to assess natural erosion processes on the Moon such as micrometeorite impacts and dust levitation.
The mechanics of the bootprints could also be usefully be compared to robotic and rover traces (Gorman 2016).
Image courtesy of NASA
Aesthetic significance: high
The geometric, banded appearance of the trace fossils is demonstrably unlike any other geological features on the lunar surface. The prints are 35.5 cm x 16 cm in size. The rectilinearity and regularity of the imprints are a stark contrast to the predominant circular patterns created by bombardment craters and the irregular shadows and textures of rocks. The contrast between light and dark in the ridges is a distinct and unique pattern in the lunar environment.
Social significance: high
The first footprint of Neil Armstrong has become a 20th century icon, reproduced in countless formats and instantly recognisable. Although the Apollo missions were political in nature and opposed by various sectors of society, the overriding social meaning of the bootprint is human ingenuity and courage. Its creation was watched by millions of people across the world and hence has a resonance far outside the space community. The bootprints are associated with Armstrong’s famous first lines about ‘one small step’, a phrase which has become incorporated in popular culture, advertising and literature.
Spiritual significance: low
While an argument for spiritual value is not as obvious as social value, the reverence in which the bootprints are held is equivalent to a secular belief relating to humanity’s place in the universe. The bootprints have contributed to the conviction, strongly held by some groups, that the Apollo landings were a hoax (Link 2021). They have also been used by scholars of religion to explore concepts of faith and divinity (eg Gordon 2019, Stavrakopoulou 2022).
This is an excerpt from a document prepared for the Global Expert Group on Sustainable Lunar Activity (GEGSLA). The full document can be downloaded here.
