10 talks by space archaeologists

These are 10 videos by space archaeologists that you might find interesting to watch if you want to know more about the field.

There's all sorts of AI slop out there now about space archaeology, which I kind of take as a good sign, because it means we're worth talking about! I analyse a few of these AI videos in this post and this one. The weirdest thing is hearing your work discussed as if you're not a real person, just some disembodied nameless presence. So here's what the real space archaeologists have to say!

1. What is space archaeology all about? In this TEDxSydney talk, I share my journey from regular archaeologist to space archaeologist, what I think some of the big issues are, and a few favourites places and artefacts (2013).

2.  I used to be a heritage consultant working in mining industry. Here I apply terrestrial principles of environmental impact assessment to managing heritage values in lunar and asteroid mining (2013).

3. Lunar sites as archaeology and heritage: the pioneer of space archaeology, Beth Laura O'Leary, talks about the cultural significance of the Apollo 11 human landing site and how it can be protected at the international level (2014).

4. Beth Laura O'Leary talks about archaeology on the Moon and her groundbreaking Lunar Legacy Project, which was published in 2000 – over 25 years ago (2015).

5. Why do people want to mine the Moon, and what impact will industrial activity have on lunar heritage sites? Sticky, abrasive dust is a big issue – and we need an environmental impact assessment process that includes cultural and natural heritage (2019).

6. Imagine if our solar system was abandoned, and a team of alien archaeologists approached it from the outside to learn about human culture. What would they find? (2019).

7. How do you do space archaeology if you can’t dig? Director of the International Space Station Archaeological Project, Justin Walsh, talks about how machine learning is used to study the material culture of living in space (2021).

8. "To Boldly Go Where No Archaeologist Has Gone Before" – Justin Walsh talks about what space archaeology is and how archaeological methods and theories have been used to get novel results about how humans adapt to space, particularly on the International Space Station (2022).

9. Archaeologist Shawn Graham from Carleton University talks about Canada’s space archaeology record, and how he built an innovative database for the International Space Station Archaeological Project (2023).

10. Justin Walsh talks about the first archaeological fieldwork ever done in space, the SQuARE project on the International Space Station (2024).

I hope you enjoy these insights into space archaeology. Stay tuned for more!