20th anniversary of the Space Age Archaeology blog

Illustration by Jens Notroff.

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. 

1. The patron saint of astronauts - the surprising story of the "Flying Friar" 11 March 2012. 19.5 k reads

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!

2. How to avoid sexist language in space - Dr Space Junk wields the red pen. 6 September 2014. 8.84 k reads

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.

3. 'Learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss': the children's playground as a variable gravity environment. 29 December 2016. 7.63 k reads

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.

4.  Autobiographical reminiscence: the phases of Venus. 7 July, 2017. 7.4 k reads

This was about how I learned the constellations as a child, and my love of the planet Venus.

5.   From aerospace to everyday life: the trajectory of cable ties. 24 August, 2016. 6.12 reads

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!

6.  Do objects and people cast shadows inside the International Space Station? 6 November, 2016. 6.1 k reads

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.

7.  A funny thing happened on the way to the spaceport. 20 July 2016. 5.22 k reads

UFO. 'Nuff said.

8.  Space-craft: rockets, jetpacks, and other DIY space paraphernalia. 11 May, 2012. 5.01 k reads

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'?

9.  Consuming the Space Age: the cuisine of Sputnik. 18 January, 2011. 4.73 reads

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.

10.  Technological rites of passage in the liminal space of Earth orbit. 27 January, 2017. 3.96 reads

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.