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Artist's impression of the Vanguard 1 satellite, in orbit, with Earth below it. Credit: unknown |
Bibliography of Space Archaeology
Friday, October 17, 2025
How to manage the heritage values of space junk
Thursday, October 09, 2025
Things seen from space: the Great Wall of China
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The Great Wall seen by ESA's Proba satellite in 2004. Credit: ESA |
- Dubai's palm islands - these are artificial islands built as residential complexes off the coast of Dubai, in the shape of palm leaves
- Major cities at night - when illuminated, the largest cities are easy to pick out as distinct entities.
- The Pyramids at Giza - located in Egypt, the Great Pyramid of Giza was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It's astonishing to think that it's retained this significance with a new space age spin. The three pyramids at Giza are not visible to the naked eye, but can be seen through a space-based camera.
- The greenhouses of Almeria - 64, 000 acres of greenhouses in Spain. These are visible through cameras because the reflective material of the greenhouses catches the light in daytime.
- The Bingham Canyon Mine - this open-cut copper mine is the largest human excavation in the world. It extends over 4 km and is over 1 km deep.
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This is Earth taken from lunar orbit - the famous Earthrise photo of 1968. No human-made features visible. Credit: NASA |
The Family Memoirs of the Rev. William Stukeley (1887) Vol. 3, p. 142. (1754)
Norman, Henry 1895 The Peoples and Politics of the Far East, p. 215.
Saturday, October 04, 2025
The Declaration of the Rights of the Moon
We the people of Earth -
Acknowledging the unique, intact, interconnected lunar environments and landscapes which exist on the Moon;
Acknowledging the ancient, primordial relationship between Earth and the Moon;
Mindful of how much is still unknown about the co-origins of Earth and the Moon;
Aware that the Moon is critically important to the healthy functioning of the Earth System, and is a vital sustaining component of all life on Earth;
Aware that the Moon holds deep cultural and spiritual meaning for human beings;
Acknowledging that the cycles of the Moon have enabled life itself to evolve on Earth;
Mindful of the immeasurable value the Moon holds as a repository of deep time and connection among all beings who have ever lived on Earth, since its features have remained almost unchanged since time immemorial;
Conscious that wealthy nations and corporations are developing technologies that may make it possible to return to, live on, mine and otherwise alter the Moon;
Aware of humanity’s impact on the Earth - causing ecosystem collapse, a new era of mass species extinction and global climate change - and seeking to avoid destruction and change to the natural systems and ecosystems of the Moon,
Declare that -
- The Moon – which consists of but is not limited to: its surface and subsurface landscapes including mountains and craters, rocks and boulders, regolith, dust, mantle, core, minerals, gases, water, ice, boundary exosphere, surrounding lunar orbits, cislunar space – is a sovereign natural entity in its own right and, in accordance with established international space law, no nation, entity, or individual of Earth may assert ownership or territorial sovereignty of the Moon.
- The Moon possesses fundamental rights, which arise from its existence in the universe, including:
- (a) the right to exist, persist and continue its vital cycles unaltered, unharmed and unpolluted by human beings;
- (b) the right to maintain ecological integrity;
- (c) the right to be defined as a self-sustaining, intelligent, cohesive, intact lunar ecosystem, beyond current human comprehension;
- (d) the right to independently maintain its own life-sustaining relationship with the Earth’s environments and living creatures; and
- (e) the right to remain a forever peaceful celestial entity, unmarred by human conflict or warfare.
Background
The Moon has been a constant feature of human existence since the time of our earliest ancestors, illuminating the night, regulating cultural activities, and inspiring science, knowledge and belief.
Since the development of the technology to travel into space over 80 years ago, the Moon has also come to be regarded as a resource for use by humans. International space treaties such as the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 proclaim that the Moon is part of the common province of humanity and not subject to territorial claims. Nevertheless, space agencies and private corporations are proposing to extract lunar resources for profit.
There are many legal and ethical complexities around lunar mining but underlying them is the common space community belief that the Moon is a dead world toward which we have no moral obligation. This view is at odds with public beliefs about the cultural and natural significance of the Moon. It also contrasts with a growing movement on Earth recognising the rights of nature, which has seen entities such as the Whanganui River in New Zealand granted legal personhood. There is mounting scientific evidence that the Moon has dynamic ongoing geological and cosmic processes. Given the acceleration of planned missions to the lunar surface, it is timely to question the instrumental approach which subordinates this ancient celestial body to human interests.
A few years ago, landscape architect Thomas Gooch, Director of the Office of Other Spaces, started running public forums to discuss how we should understand our relationship with the Moon, as part of his work with the Moon Village Association (MVA), an international NGO based in Vienna. The MVA is committed to ethical and sustainable engagement with the Moon. The last of these forums, in August 2020, considered whether the Moon could be granted legal personality as a way to acknowledge that the Moon had an existence of its own separate from human perceptions. Watch the recording of the forum below.
The forums led to a discussion between Dr Michelle Maloney (National Convenor, Australian Earth Law Alliance), Ceridwen Dovey (space researcher and writer), Alice Gorman (space archaeologist), Mari Margil (Executive Director of the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights, US) and Thomas Gooch, about creating a Declaration of the Rights of the Moon. One issue was clear: as the Moon held such importance for the people and non-humans of Earth, it was imperative to consult widely and gain as much input as possible. However, there had to be some starting point to open the discussion. Slowly the idea that the group would draft such a declaration was born.
Over the course of a year, the group met regularly to define and refine the necessary concepts. The Draft we have created here is the end result. But it’s really just a beginning – a way to start the discussion at a global level. We don’t know how this declaration will evolve, but your participation is a key part of the process.
Sunday, September 14, 2025
In the 1870s, Flaubert predicts space travel by balloon
'BALLOONS: With balloons, we'll end up going to the moon. We're not about to control them.'
Gustave Flaubert, Dictionary of Received Ideas (1870s)
Sunday, September 07, 2025
An archaeological survey of Earth orbit.
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Cartoon by Robert Mankoff. Image courtesy of the New Yorker |
The first archaeological surveys in orbit
The mechanical observers were the antennas and cameras set up just to look for satellites. There were the Minitrack interferometers, of which there were 14 across the US, South America, South Africa and Australia. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory set up a network of 12 Baker-Nunn cameras, not just for satellites but also natural objects in Earth orbit. The cameras were located in Argentina, Curacao, India, Iran, Japan, Peru, South Africa, Spain, US and Australia - where Woomera was one of the few locations to have both a Minitrack and a Baker-Nunn.
The USSR KIK network was developed from the ground tracking stations of the R-7 rocket, an intercontinental ballistic missile that was the launcher for Sputnik 1. There were 13 ground stations, all within the USSR. Now this is an interesting point, because the Vanguard satellite project was designed explicitly to disguise its military origins; hence their tracking network was not simply an adaptation of a defence one. The USSR was not so concerned about 'military taint'.
On 31st January 1958, Explorer 1 poked its head above the ionosphere and joined Sputnik 2. Just the two of them. Vanguard 1 was launched on St Patrick's Day on the 17 March, and then there were three. A bit less than a month later, Sputnik 2 re-entered on 14 April, and it was down to two satellites again. All that infrastructure for two little blips in the sky.
Sieving the sky
Since that time, the number of instruments surveying the sky for human artefacts has increased exponentially, as have their targets. It's not just whole satellites any more; it's also the fragments, of which there are millions. In fact, you could say that the tracking instruments are like the nested sieves archaeologists are accustomed to use in excavations. Usually, you screen the dirt through a top mesh which is 5 or 7 mm. This catches the larger artefacts. Beneath it is a smaller mesh, usually 2 mm. This catches the smaller pieces. Everything else falls through and becomes part of the spoil heap. If you use even smaller sieves, or flotation tanks, you can recover pollen and other microscopic objects.This is very like how observation of space junk from Earth happens. Most of the optical or radar tracking instruments can only 'see' pieces 10 cm or above. This is the top sieve. Others can 'see' smaller pieces - these tend to be lasers, or beam park instruments. This is the 2 mm sieve.
The analogy is even more apt when you consider that artefacts larger than 5 mm can slip through the top mesh, depending on their angle. Angle and cross-sectional area are also factors in how visible a bit of space junk is from the ground.
In archaeology the artefacts are often fragments, or by-products of manufacture. Sometimes we piece the bits back together to form a whole stone tool, or a ceramic vessel. Sometimes we use them to calculate the weight of a particular material in that excavation unit. For your edification, I can tell you that the weight of human material in Earth orbit is the equivalent of 10 million cane toads.
Robot archaeologists
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The International Space Station, taken from orbit. Image courtesy of HEO |
References
Bonnal, Christophe 2025 The proliferation of space debris in Earth's orbit. Polytechnique Insights 12 FebruaryCentre for Invasive Species Solutions (2012) Overview of the cane toad. Factsheet. PestSmart website. https://pestsmart.org.au/toolkit-resource/overview-of-the-cane-toad accessed 06-09-2025
Thursday, July 31, 2025
Lavatime: day, night and dreams in a lunar lava tube (excerpt)
This is the opening four paragraphs of a short story, which was shortlisted in the 2024 Minds Shine Bright Light and Shadow international literary competition. The story is about how the protagonist lets go of Earth and commits herself to the Moon, with some nefarious activity along the way.
Lavatime
Waking up on the Moon was a process of adjustment. Sleep was such a terrestrial phenomenon, she had decided. In the transition before her eyes opened, she always felt herself to be still ‘at home’, in the Earth bedroom, the Earth bed with the pale green satin quilt that no longer existed. It was a moment of disorientation before she became fully conscious of where she was.
The residues of bright trees fled from her dreams. She could set her room’s ‘window’ to show any view she liked from Earth — such earthly connections were held to be beneficial for the mental health of the lunarians — but somehow these digital forests seemed less real than the trees formed solely inside her sleeping brain. Hers were usually eucalypts with long glossy leaves and piebald cream-and-brown trunks. Sometimes the hum of insects hung in the leaves, barely leaving an imprint in her mind as the regular morning sounds of the lunar habitat started to overwrite them.
So she did not usually turn the window on to Earth. She preferred the live feed to the surface. Not many of her colleagues did, she knew; but somehow this made the Moon real for her, stabilising her here. The unchanging, silent, grey surface was an anchor to a reality that grew further and further away from Earth the longer she stayed.
The surface was never as still or boring as the others believed, though. Over 15 Earth days, the angle of the sunlight slowly changed, and she saw the plain, strewn with rough boulders, reveal different contours and textures to her gaze. It was quite dynamic really, if snail-slow in its progress sometimes. Time was such a moveable feast on the Moon. Inside the lava tube, they worked to a local clock which matched circadian rhythms, aided by artificial light and dark; they communicated with Earth using UTC; and they pitted themselves against the implacable force of the long lunar day, which would have frozen them in its dawn and boiled them at its noon. Of the lunar night they did not speak.
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Lava tube entrance. Image credit: NASA / Goddard / Arizona State University |
Reference
Gorman, A.C. 2025 Lavatime. In Amanda Scotney (ed) Light and Shadow. Minds Shine Bright International Creative Writing Anthology Seasons 2, pp 109-114. Windsor, Vic: Minds Shine Bright
Purchase a copy here.
Acknowledgements
I'd like to thank Amanda Scotney for tracking me down when I was ill, and including me in the public events around the anthology, and my esteemed colleague Lynley Wallis for providing valuable feedback and encouragement!