The Australian Space Science Conference 2011: are we really all "nerds, carpetbaggers, enthusiasts and nutters"?

The week before last I was at the Australian Space Science Conference in Canberra, the annual gathering for space scientists of all kinds: astrophysics, astronomy, planetary science, astrobiology, robotics, satellite development, propulsion systems, education, policy, history, heritage and a whole heap more. (I gave a paper about why Skylab is remembered while Wresat 1 is forgotten, and what this means for the kinds of stories we want to tell about Australian space). A highlight of the conference was the opening address by Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research. Among many other things, he said that:

Combined, the Australian space industry involves around 630 organisations employing 8,400 people and generating revenues of up to $1.6 billion.  I cannot overstate the importance of the products and services these businesses provide. Today in Australia, there are some 30 separate federal government programs that depend on space industry infrastructure  ....

We need to secure our future in space, to ensure our prosperity in Australia. We have made significant progress towards that goal over the past four years. I have every faith in the exceptional talent represented here today.

Thanks, Kim! After this vote of confidence, it might seem a little surprising that Brett Biddington (Chair of the Space Industry Association of Australia and member of the Space Industry Innovation Council) should give a presentation where he said politicians viewed us as

 ... a very odd mix of people: nerds, carpetbaggers, enthusiasts and nutters .... typically long on assertion and exceptionally thin on evidence ....

An account of his talk was was written up by SBS World News Australia. Now, Brett is one of us, of course; and I interpreted his conference presentation as a bit of a pep talk, delivered with a measure of affection to his community, but aimed, perhaps, at jolting us out of our silos and thinking a bit more about the importance of good communication with both the public and politicians. (I have to confess that I don't know what a carpetbagger is, apart from the title of a trashy novel by Harold Robbins, which I hasten to add I have never read). When I saw the special coverage on the SBS website, I was actually a little shocked at how harsh the printed words seemed in comparison to his delivery. With so many things happening in Australian space, it's not a good time to feel undermined by one of our own!

To me, it was clear that his talk was not intended as a public statement, although there is of course no reason why it should not be reported. And he's right too: clear communication is a key factor, especially at this critical time when political attitudes towards space are on the upturn. However, reflecting about this characterisation of the space community (and wondering which one of the four I might be - I can see I'm going to have to google carpetbagger before I finish writing this; if it involves snakes, which I feel it might, I'll take it), it occurs to me that it probably required a level of nuttiness and enthusiasm to keep dreams, and more importantly, specialist knowledge, alive through lean times when there was no support, funding or recognition of how space underpins late industrial states and all the things that we now take for granted, like global navigation and telecommunications. So while politicians may see these as bad things, we don't have to feel ashamed of our own nerdiness. It can be a good thing, too (leading, possibly, even to Nobel prizes!)

Brett's point is simply that times have changed, and we need to learn some new skills, to be more politically savvy. I like to think I do my bit for science communication in the space realm. 

OK: now for the denouement.

(Wait while I look up carpetbagger)

Lordy!  It turns out to be a very complex term with lots of history, generally meaning a bit dodgy, and no snake involvement at all. I'll stick with nerdiness for the time being.

My new career: planetary archaeologist

Just back from the Australian Space Science Conference in Canberra. After a fabulous talk by Graziella Caprarelli (UTS) about the state of planetary sciences in Australia, I have decided that I will no longer be a space archaeologist but a planetary archaeologist. This is nicely in keeping with my current research on unifying terrestrial, maritime and celestial archaeology. Planetary science is about the solar system, and is different from earth science and astronomy. So it works on all levels. (I'm imagining a T-shirt with a picture of an astronaut holding a trowel).

The World Heritage Convention and sites in outer space

The Australian Space Science Conference is coming up later in the year, and I've submitted the following poster abstract with one of my graduate students:

Space heritage: the application of the World Heritage Convention to sites in Outer Space

Mr Nigel Springbett-Bruer and Dr Alice Gorman

Flinders University

Abstract

Since 1957, space enterprises have led to the creation of places and objects that have heritage value in Earth orbit, on the Moon, Mars and other celestial bodies, and in interplanetary space. Some, like the 1969 Apollo 11 landing site on the Moon, and Vanguard 1, the oldest surviving satellite in Earth orbit, might be argued to have heritage value on a global level. However, there are at present no legal or other instruments that provide heritage protection to sites such as these.

Currently, the World Heritage Convention (WHC) can only be applied to immovable places and objects in terrestrial contexts, and the application of national heritage legislation to outer space is problematic as it can be interpreted as tantamount to making a territorial claim in contravention of the Outer Space Treaty. This poster reports on a study investigating the status of the World Heritage Convention and the Outer Space Treaty as customary international law, as determined by the number of signatory states and the extent to which they are observed by the international community. We argue that the WHC and relevant provisions of the Outer Space Treaty have achieved such a status, and hence provide an avenue for the WHC to be applied to heritage in outer space and on other celestial bodies. While there are many other conceptual difficulties in applying the WHC to space, this is a starting point for the creation of an internationally agreed framework for the recognition and management of globally significant heritage sites in outer space.

**********

Part of the argument is that the intersection of the Outer Space Treaty and the World Heritage Convention lies in the idea of space as a global commons. As is always the case with these things the bones are there and we have much thinking and research yet to do to flesh it out properly - but I'm excited, with Nigel's help, to be taking this tiny step into the quagmire of space law.

8th Australian Space Science Conference

Call for Papers

8th Australian Space Science Conference

29th September to 2nd October 2008

CANBERRA, ACT Australia

It is our pleasure to invite you to submit an abstract for the 8th Australian Space Science Conference in Canberra Australia (ASSC). This will be the second ASSC jointly sponsored and organised by the National Committee for Space Science (NCSS) and the National Space Society of Australia (NSSA). The ASSC is intended to be the primary annual meeting for Australian research relating to space science. It welcomes space scientists, engineers, educators, industry and government.

This year's ASSC will run in conjunction with the NCSS's workshop on implementing Australia's first Decadal Plan for Space Science, currently released in draft form. This one-day workshop will discuss the Plan and Government's responses, better link the scientific community and associated stakeholders in Government and industry, and start implementing the Plan's recommendations.

The scope of the conference covers fundamental and applied research that applies to space technologies, and includes the following:

Space science, including space and atmospheric physics, remote sensing from/of space, planetary sciences, astrobiology and life sciences, and space-based astronomy and astrophysics.

Space engineering, including communications, navigation, space operations, propulsion and spacecraft design, test and implementation.

Space industry

Government, international relations and law

Education and outreach.

For the abstract guidelines and online submission (as well as guidelines for written papers) go to URL www.assc.nssa.com.au

Key Dates

• Closing date for ASSC abstracts 6 July 2008

• Registration opens 20 July 2008

• Acceptance of ASSC Abstract 4 August 2008

• Closing date for full written ASSC papers 31 October 2008

Please make the conference known to your colleagues. We hope that you will attend. You may email asscconference@nssa.com.au for more information.

Anntonette Joseph, Co-Chair, National Space Society of Australia

Iver Cairns, Co-Chair, National Committee for Space Science,

University of Sydney.

Sputnik apples

Yesterday I gave a lecture about Woomera to the University of the Third Age - a volunteer-run organisation aimed at retirees. There were quite a few people in the audience who had connections to Woomera of one kind or another. But the bit I liked most was the story of the Sputnik apples. To celebrate the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957, one now-retired gentleman and his work colleagues stuck toothpicks into apples in Sputnik's antenna configuration and hung lots of them from the ceiling by string.

Bamboo skewers may have been a little more to scale but they are not such easy things to find in an office. A spray of silver paint would have been marvellous too (I'm getting ideas, you see, on the space party theme .... )

The literature, and my own discussions with people, suggest that in Australia the reaction to Sputnik 1 was very different to that in the USA. It was not perceived as a threat, it did not cause a national crisis of confidence. (Although it should be noted that not all scholars agree that that was the general reaction in the US). Instead, people found it interesting and exciting.

Download The Archaeology of Orbital Space

This article, in the proceedings of the Fifth Australian Space Science Conference in 2005, isn't terribly accessible - but for those of you who are interested, it is now available on my Flinders University website. This is the URL:

http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/archaeology/staff/gorman.php

There is an icon next to the article to click.

Update 22 January 2015: broken link - the new link is here.

More about Syncom 3

Happy New Year! I'm back in Adelaide, just moved house, trying to get motivated to do some work. The most pressing task is to finish an article for a book called "Contemporary Archaeologies: Excavating Now", edited by Angela Piccini and Cornelius Holtorf. I've decided to explore space technology and its significance as part of two major post-war social and cultural processes: decolonisation and globalisation. It's a good opportunity to revisit Syncom 3, which I first wrote about for the Australian Space Science Conference in Melbourne last year. One interesting new facet of this satellite (and Syncom 2) is the effect that the broadcast of the 1964 Tokyo Olympic games via the Syncoms to Europe and North America had on the growth of the modern Olympic movement, and on Japanese television technology.

Soon I may have more to report about Australia's FedSat satellite, as I hope to have the opportunity to do some more detailed research on its significance.

The archaeology of orbital space

My abstract for this paper to be presented next week at the Australian Space Science Conference is at:

http://www.nssa.com.au/ocs/viewabstract.php?id=59&cf=5

I am a little nervous, I must confess. I've talked to space scientists before - at the British Interplanetary Society, the Australian Space Science forum last year in Canberra, and at Kourou earlier this year. But none of those was a formal conference setting. It's a different world to that of archaeology where I know the territory very well. So we'll see .....

Programme for the Australian Space Science Conference

Less than a month to go until the Australian Space Science conference in Melbourne in mid-September. For more details check out their website.

Australian Space Science Conference

I'm busy writing my paper for this conference, in Melbourne in September. It's my first time at a science conference and having to submit the paper beforehand is a bit of a shock - it never happens in the archaeological world - archeologists always prepare their presentations at the last minute! Still it's a good discipline. I'm speaking about cultural heritage management of orbital debris. See the conference website.