NASA's Handbook for Limiting Orbital Debris

This new publication is available here.

Rocket parties

Today I am writing a lecture on how open pit mines work (from a heritage management perspective). Tragically, I find this stuff really interesting - I remember, while excavating once on a Hunter Valley coal mine, one of the drillers got a bit enthusiastic about having a number of young female people around and asked us to visit his rig, quite illegal of course. I was far more interested in watching the drill bit than being chatted up, I fear!

However, there is only so much discussion of stripping ratios and NVPs that a person can take in one go, so I am distracting myself with more rocket cakes. Rocket (and satellite) cakes have become a much larger theme on this blog than I imagined was possible, but when confronted with stunning creativity, there is nothing to do but acknowledge it. So here is the rocket cake that the very creative Karen Cheng made for her son's third birthday party, and some lovely toilet-roll rockets.

A Fearsome Heritage shortlisted for British Archaeological Award

Beth O'Leary and I have an article in this about space heritage.

Left Coast Press is pleased to announce that that A Fearsome Heritage (in the WAC One World Archaeology series) has been shortlisted for the British Book Awards Best Scholarly Archaeological Book! The British Archaeological Awards are a showcase for the best in British archaeology and a central event in the archaeological calendar. Established in 1976, they have grown to encompass fourteen Awards, covering every aspect of British archaeology.

About this innovative book….

A Fearsome Heritage: Diverse Legacies of the Cold War

John Schofield and Wayne Cocroft, eds

Published March 2007, 336 pages

"A Fearsome Heritage draws on artistic responses to the Cold War, defining them as being archaeology in a broad sense. This approach is refreshing, and the individual contributions are of high quality…the boldness of the book’s approach to modern remains, as well as its willingness to discuss topics rarely looked at by archaeologists, makes reading the volume a stimulating experience. The reader gets a good picture of the diversity of interest in heritage, as well as some of the approaches adopted by heritage managers, artists and political forces. The willingness to experiment, shown by the incorporation of sound and visual arts, is both admirable and effective in terms of underlining the message that not all the tools to understand Cold War heritage can be supplied by archaeology. "

- Mads Dahl Gjefsen, Archaeological Review from Cambridge

"As a study of the "contemporary past," the volume takes a multidisciplinary perspective that joins archaeology with anthropology, art, sociology, and politics to study/critique Cold War heritage. Importantly, the work of contemporary artists in film, video, and music loom large in this lavishly illustrated volume (which includes color!) because it not only constitutes archives, documents, and artifacts, but also serves to engage with the Cold War symbolically and interpret it for us."

- B. Osborne, CHOICE Magazine

From massive nuclear test sites to the more subtle material realities of everyday life, the influence of the Cold War on modern culture has been profound and global. Fearsome Legacies unites innovative work on the interpretation and management of Cold War heritage from fields including archaeology, history, art and architecture, and cultural studies. Contributors understand material culture in its broadest sense, examining objects in outer space, domestic space, landscapes, and artistic spaces. They tackle interpretive challenges and controversies, including in museum exhibits, heritage sites, archaeological sites, and other historic and public venues. With over 150 color photos and illustrations, including a photographic essay, readers can feel the profound visual impact of this material culture.

To order, visit our website at:

https://www.routledge.com/A-Fearsome-Heritage-Diverse-Legacies-of-the-Cold-War/Schofield-Cocroft/p/book/9781598742596

ISBN: 978-1-59874-258-9 (c)

PRICE:

$79.00 U.S./Canadian, £42.99 (Cloth)

For more information, contact Caryn Berg at archaeology@LCoastPress.com

The Last Word - Dead in Space

In this week's edition of New Scientist, I discuss (very briefly) what might happen if someone died on a long haul space flight.

https://www.newscientist.com/blog/lastword/2007/02/dead-in-space.html

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).

Crimes against relativity

Now, absurdly, I feel I have to prove to Greg Egan that I'm not bored by relativity. I offer the following slides from The gravity of archaeology, 2007, AAA/ASHA/AIMA conference.

Incandescence: is relativity just boring?

I have to write a review of Greg Egan's new book Incandescence for the Australian Book Review. While I love Greg Egan to bits (Schild's Ladder would make it into my top 20 or possibly even 10 greatest ever reads across all genres), I have to say I didn't actually like Incandescence a terrible lot. I got bored with the physics (usually Egan's strong point; it's amazing when someone can make you feel like you are perceiving the world in five dimensions just using words) and I didn't give a rat's about the characters.

So I will have to write a critical review, and then Greg Egan will read it because it's in the ABR, and then he will hate me. This is a terrible dilemma.

Archaeology in Rockets Galore

When the British Government starts building a rocket range in the Uist islands, the locals register their opposition in numerous ways, including destroying equipment and painting seagulls pink (rockets, protests, etc, just like Woomera and Kourou ....). And, of course, construction disturbs some archaeological sites:

Those who had accused the Government of a piece of hasty and ill-considered vandalism must have wished that they had kept silent when they heard of the praiseworthy assistance afforded to the Ancient Monuments Department of the Ministry of Works by the Air Ministry. As a result numerous wheelhouses dating to the Iron Age in the first centuries of the Christian Era have been excavated, and also a Viking long house of the tenth century. It is hoped that some of these may be preserved, but should necessity dictate that launching-sites for guided missiles require their destruction, archaeologists will have the gratification of knowing through photographs more about these remains of former inhabitants of the three Uists than they would otherwise have done because the requisite funds for excavation had not hitherto been available.

As a read the book was rather unentertaining, but there are lots of wonderful quotes and it picks up on many of the themes I have been writing about.

Rockets Galore

I love my students. They bring me all sorts of space things - plastic astronauts, pop-up books, science fiction magazines, records. A few days ago darling Martin gave me "Rockets Galore" by Compton Mackenzie, with the dustjacket intact. I read "Whiskey Galore" years ago, but did not know about this sequel, in which the British Government attempts to build a rocket range on some remote Scottish islands. It's fabulous. There's a German rocket scientist, Dr Hamburger, crofters turned off their land and forced to migrate (shades of the Kourou expropriations), protests, and, of course, a romance.

It was originally published in 1957, the year Sputnik 1 was launched, and 10 years after the establishment of Woomera, and was also made into a feature film. Haven't finished reading it yet but will be curious to see if they do mention Woomera ....

New directions in Australian space policy

My ever charming friend Brett Biddington has recently released a paper about Australia's space future (Biddington, Brett 2008 Skin in the Game: Australia's National Interests in Space to 2025. Kokoda Papers Number 7, Kokoda Foundation, Canberra). He says:

Since the mid-90s, the Commonwealth has pursued a highly decentralised approach to space amongst its departments and agencies. This is not considered a tenable option for the future (Biddington 2008:58).

He proposes two new organisations: a Central Policy Coordination Body, and a Satellite Design and Operations Authority. The latter might be a statutory authority, a company, or a national research facility. The former is not necessarily an agency as such, but would play the role of being Australia's voice in the space world - our lack of such a unified voice is detrimental to our credibility in this sphere at present.

The Kokatha and the Cold War

Another conference, another abstract .... Andrew Starkey and I are proposing this one for the Australian Archaeological Association Annual Conference in December.

The Kokatha and the Cold War: Indigenous and technological heritage at Woomera, South Australia.

Andrew Starkey (Kokatha) and Alice Gorman (Flinders University)

In 1947, the Woomera rocket range was established in the supposedly “empty” desert north of Port Augusta in South Australia. Over the next 60 years, Woomera was Australia’s primary Cold War site, developing missiles and launch vehicles, and participating in US and European military and space programmes. It is still an active launch site. More recently the Woomera Prohibited Area has been opened to mineral exploration, leading to an increase in cultural heritage surveys.

The desert around the Woomera village is the traditional country of the Kokatha. The Woomera Heritage Centre, recently redesigned, separates the history of space technology from both Indigenous and pastoral occupation. In this paper, we examine the intersection of military and space technology with Kokatha heritage in the Prohibited Area. We argue that in order to understand its significance, Woomera must be contextualised as part of early Cold War space enterprises, where launch sites were located in colonised lands heavily impacted by the introduction of disease, dispossession from country, and development. Woomera can be regarded as a cultural landscape created by the establishment of a technological enclave within Indigenous country, with the underlying theme, from 1947 to the present, of nuclear arms development.

Rocket cakes rock

My culinary boffin friend Kaylene sent me this wonderful rocket cake website:


http://www.vatsaas.org/rtv/misc/cakes/rocketsoncakes.aspx

All kinds of inspiring rocket cakes here. This picture is a taste: cutting the cake at the first anniversary of the Redstone Arsenal.

The social world of Australian space

Last night it was the conference dinner at the Australian Space Development Conference in Adelaide. I didn't register for the conference, and have not seen a single paper - but I did the important events! The dinner was sponsored by Arianespace and each of us got a fabulous tacky Ariane souvenir, which I completely love of course: a highlighter pen disguised as an Ariane 5. They screened an Arianespace promotional DVD which was full of images of Kourou - the Jupiter control room, the Ariane 5 maquette, the BIL and the BAF etc, and it made me feel quite nostalgic about my week there in 2005.

Caught up with lots of Aussie space luminaries like Roger Franzen, Ian Tuohy, Gordon Pike, Bill Barrett, Naomi Mathers, Kirby Ikin and of course my ever charming friend Brett Biddington. Also met Lindsay Cambell, PR manager for Air Force's operations at Woomera, and we concocted some schemes. (Only I fear that I can't recall exactly what they were this morning - they sounded wonderful last night though!).

Michael Davis, Adelaide-based space lawyer who was responsible for the International Space University Summer Session in Adelaide a few years ago, suggested that I put in a submission to the Senate enquiry on Australian space. I had considered this, but was not sure what it would achieve. Someone else also asked me if I had done one, so given that people clearly see my input as valuable, I'm going to do it!

The delectable Anthony Wicht, engineer and space lawyer, allowed himself to be persuaded to be a co-author with Nigel Springbett-Bruer and I on the paper about - see below - the application of the World Heritage Convention to space.

I ended the evening discussing what a complete bastard Newton was with Michael Green, who must be only person I have ever met who has the read the entire Principia.

More on the mystery space junk in Queensland

Back in March, I was asked by ABC radio to identify a piece of space junk found near Charleville in Queensland. I determined that it was a Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel, from the upper stage of a rocket, and may have come from one of three launch vehicles predicted to re-enter in November 2007:

1. The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV, India; launched from Sriharikota)

2. Molniya-M (Russia, launched from Plesetsk)

3. Delta II (USA, launched from Cape Canaveral)

(For full details, see http://zoharesque.blogspot.com/2008/03/space-archaeologist-identifies-mystery.html)

Last night at the Australian Space Development Conference I was talking to Dr Michael Green of the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (who I must say was initially a little skeptical about the value of space heritage management, but I think I talked him round ...) and this object came up. Apparently the US have said it's not theirs, and Dr Green was going to write to the UN to investigate its source. So my previous research on this question has proved useful.

This of course is part of the Outer Space Treaty, under which states retain ownership of their space hardware no matter where it is.

I hope he was even more convinced of the value of space archaeology after that!

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.

A rocket cake to be proud of!

This gorgeous rocket cake was made by my friend Kaylene for her son Reid's fifth birthday. I am sure it tasted as wonderful as it looks.

Dr Space Junk identifies Blue Streak wreckage in the Simpson Desert

There's nothing more satisfying for a space archaeologist than to look at some piece of space hardware and be able to identify it immediately .... In this case it was particularly easy.

From ABC online:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/04/2265252.htm?section=justin

Rocket wreckage found in outback

Surveyors in the Simpson Desert have discovered what is believed to be part of a Blue Streak rocket launched at Woomera in 1966.

Simon Fanning and his geological survey team were flying over the Simpson Desert when they saw what they believed was part of satellite in the scrub.

"It turns out this wreck is not in fact a satellite but a rocket - at least a chunk of one anyway" he said.

"I'd seen ET as a kid, Star Wars and all that stuff, but to actually find something was really different."

Dr Alice Gorman of Flinders University in Adelaide believes the rocket could be one of 10 blue streak rockets launched at Woomera in South Australia in the 1960s by the European Launcher Development Organisation.

"The Blue Streak's very distinctive and the location in the Simpson Desert and the details on the rocket indicate it's most likely from one of the two 1966 launches" she said.

Mr Fanning is reluctant to disclose the precise location of the find, but the ABC has found a EBay site offering the GPS coordinates for sale.

There is private collector interest in Blue Streaks, but Dr Gorman says this discovery belongs in a museum.

"There was only a handful of them launched here in Australia" she said.

"I think it would be appropriate to put this one in a museum."

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.

More space junk poetry

This from the inimitable Denis Gojak:

'I think that I shall never see,
a scorched piece of Skylab smacked into a paddock as beautiful as a tree...'

I concur.

Redefining the geography of earth and space

I have to write something about this soon, based on my AAA paper "The gravity of archaeology".

Richard Cathcart is not only an excellent space junk poet but has some interesting insights on this topic (in his 1979 publication The Developing Artificial Geography of the Solar System, Public Administration Series P-206, Illinois). He makes the point that the lithosphere is currently as impenetrable to humans as space used to be, and that the upper limit of the biosphere is where the International Space Station now orbits.

He also notes that the Earth is "eroding", in a sense, as material is injected into orbit. But it is also aggrading as far huger quantities of cosmically derived material fall to earth every day. This interchange of material between what we call earth and space is a good illustration of the artificiality of these boundaries, as Nigel Clark (2005) also argues in Ex-orbitant Globality (Theory, Culture and Society 22(5):165-185).