Space Travel and Culture

I'm just waiting for the proofs for my chapter in this book, due to be released in June this year.

Space Travel and Culture

Edited by David Bell and Martin Parker

Wiley-Blackwell

1. Introduction: Making Space: Martin Parker and David Bell

2. Checklist: The Secret Life of Apollo’s "Fourth Crewmember": Matthew H. Hersch

3. A Political History of NASA’s Space Shuttle: The Development Years, 1972-1982: Brian Woods

4. The Geostationary Orbit: A Critical Legal Geography of Space’s Most Valuable Real Estate: Christy Collis

5. The Cosmos as Capitalism’s Outside: Peter Dickens

6. Capitalists in Space: Martin Parker

7. Space is the (non)Place: Martians, Marxists, and the Outer Space of the Radical Imagination: Stevphen Shukaitis

8. The Space Race and Soviet Utopian Thinking: Iina Kohonen

9. The archaeology of space exploration: Alice Gorman

10. Giant Leaps and Forgotten Steps: NASA and the Performance of Gender: Daniel Sage

11. Idealised Heroes of ‘Retrotopia’: History, Identity and the Postmodern in Apollo 13: Dario Llinares

12. Middle America, the Moon, the Sublime and the Uncanny: Darren Jorgensen

13. Re-thinking Apollo: Envisioning Environmentalism in Space: Holly Henry and Amanda Taylor

14. Conclusion: To Infinity and Beyond?: Warren Smith

How does one create a space heritage list?

I've been adding new objects and places to Dr Space Junk's Space Heritage List on Facebook. It's a fairly random, intuitive process (this despite having put together some criteria based on the Australian Commonwealth ones).

A number of things struck me, reflecting on this process. Firstly, most heritage criteria are designed to assess the significance of one place or thing at a time. What I'm doing, I've realised, is a little different. I am thinking about the shape of the whole list, and what it represents as collection. I'm trying to make it representative, both chronologically and geographically (or spatially). So (in a very gradual and ad hoc way), after having added some of the major ones like Tranquility Base, Peenemunde, Woomera (obviously!), Vanguard 1, Syncom 3 - all things you will recognise as my favourites, I'm filling in gaps. Something for every year since 1936, something from every country that has launched a satellite, or hosted a space installation.

This is more similar to a museum collection policy than how a standard heritage register works, where properties are nominated by professionals or interested parties without any coordination. And more like the World Heritage List, which tries to redress imbalances in its properties, and publishes documents identifying gaps.

There are two criteria that stand out as I think each day what I can add to satisfy demand. Firstly, I want to get something in there from every nation-state that has a space involvement. Nationalism and national prestige are significant motivating factors in spacefaring, and the role of nationalism in heritage, particularly world heritage, is a contentious issue and something that has been endlessly written about and debated.

Secondly, because this is a developing technology, and in a sense the ultimate colonising technology, many of the things that are intuitively significant are those that were the first to do something or go somewhere: the first spacecraft to flyby Mars, the first to land of Venus, the first active telecommunications satellite.

I'm still working out what this all means, but wanted to get my thoughts down before I forgot them!

The world's first Space Heritage List

Sometimes very simple ideas are extremely productive. This was how I got into space archaeology a few years ago: by wondering if terrestrial cultural heritage management principles applied off-world.

As you know I've been thinking about the World Heritage List and the legal aspects extending it to space (in collaboration with my sidekick Nigel). A couple of weeks ago I took the criteria for registration on the Australian Commonwealth Heritage List and rewrote them for space. Not much involved, really! Yet reading through it afterwards I realised it was actually quite a powerful document in its own right. Each criterion, when applied to space heritage, raised new issues. In particular, I'm now thinking of natural/cultural values in space and how these ideas intersect in a non-biological environment. More on that later perhaps.

At the same time, I developed the world's first actual space heritage list. OK, so it's a Facebook gift application, but I don't think that diminishes its importance. If you're not on Facebook, you won't understand what this means and I apologise. (I didn't mean to be on Facebook myself and I completely blame my esteemed colleague Dr Lynley Wallis, creator of the Sputnik cakes, for getting me addicted to an online game). If you are on Facebook, you can select objects like satellites and places like Kourou from Dr Space Junk's Space Heritage List to send to your friends. It just seemed like the right kind of platform for the moment.

Again, the mere process of thinking what belongs in this list, and why, raises a whole lot of interesting issues. One is representativeness. I have tended to focus on certain periods and places in my research. The Space Heritage List, however, should represent all periods and geographic regions (or should it? and how? equally? proportionally? this not yet worked out). To construct it, I'm researching things that have been off my radar until this point, like the first post-Sputnik USSR scientific satellites, Elektron 1- 4. So I'm learning a lot from this (ostensibly) frivolous exercise. I dare say I shall report more on it as it develops.

(Image courtesy of Roger Jones)

The eighty-day orbit

Another orbital reference from Around the World in Eighty Days:

Such was the respective situation of these two men, and above them Phileas Fogg was hovering in his majestic indifference. He was accomplishing rationally his orbit around the world, without being troubled by the asteroids gravitating around him.

Wishing on space hardware - it's right.

More satellite poetry (if you regard song lyrics as poetry, which I do). This one from Billy Bragg's New England:

I saw two shooting stars last night

I wished on them but they were only satellites

Is it wrong to wish on space hardware

Literary manifestations of globalisation: Around the World in Eighty Days.

Over Christmas, I raided the bookcase in a cousin's house, and decided to read an old childhood favourite, Around the World in Eighty Days.

Not having read it for some years, different things struck me. (I used to wonder: why did Mrs Aouda fall in love with Phileas Fogg when it was really Passepartout who rescued her?). 

When Fogg is playing whist in the Reform Club at the beginning, the following conversation contributes to the laying of the wager:

"Well", replied Ralph,"there is not a single country where he can take refuge".

"Pshaw!"

"Where do you suppose he might go?"

"I don't know", replied Andrew Stuart, "but after all the world is big enough".

"It was formerly", said Phileas Fogg in a low tone.

.....

""How, formerly? Has the world grown smaller perchance?"

"Without doubt", replied Gauthier Ralph. "I am of the opinion of Mr Fogg. The world has grown smaller, since we can go round it now ten times quicker than one hundred years ago".

The reason the world is smaller is because of railways, steamships, and constructions such as the Suez Canal. But even in 1873, our man Jules presages the time when satellites make the world even smaller. Later in the book, this is how he describes Phileas Fogg:

He was a heavy body, traversing an orbit around the terrestrial globe, according to the laws of rational mechanics.

Phileas Fogg is himself a satellite, just in the lowest orbit possible.

Incidentally, I had to look up the date Around the World was first published, and in doing so came across the book Around the Day in Eighty Worlds by Julio Cortazar. This is how it is described in Wikipedia:

La Vuelta al Día en Ochenta Mundos (Around the Day in Eighty Worlds) is a book by Julio Cortázar released and published in two separate volumes in 1967 (same year Hopscotch's translation wins the 1967 U.S. National Book Award). It pays homage to Julio's biggest literary influences while narrating new developments in the world of music during the 1960s, modern art (Dada and Surrealism) and some of the events in regard to America's expanding involvement in other countries. The book also reveals for the first time one of Julio's most adorable pastimes in Paris: playing the trumpet.

This makes me so want to read it, but what I like most about this description is the notion of playing the trumpet as an adorable pastime.

Launch of International Astronomy Year 2009

15 January 2009

2009 has been declared the International Year of Astronomy by the UN General Assembly in collaboration with the International Astronomical Union.

Launched under the theme, 'The Universe - Yours to discover', IYA2009 involves more than one hundred countries, and will stimulate worldwide interest, especially among young people, in astronomy and science.

The official opening ceremony takes place in Paris, 15-16 January 2009, under the aegis of the United Nations (UN), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Nobel Prize winners, scientists from all over the world and government ministers are attending this prestigious event.

Sputnik racehorses

Further to an earlier posting (Jan 20, 2005) about my father's attempt to get one of our racehorses registered as "Little Lemon" in honour of Laika, it seems that satellites were a popular source of racehorse names in the 1950s:

The Jockey Club of New York, which approves the names of race horses, has recently announced that only one horse can be named Sputnik and that since that name has now been assigned, no more breeders need ask for the name.

'

From Ackerman, Louise M. 1958 Facetious variations of 'Sputnik'. American Speech 33(2):154-156

Around this time many space expressions, including Russian words, became common; and there are many articles tracking these changes in language driven by the popular interest in space exploration.

Rock art or rockets?

Or perhaps it should be rock art AND rockets. This is a title for a paper that we came up with, late one night after too many champagnes in the earlier part of last year. The illustrious Dr Alistair Pike was present and complicit. I was filing some papers and came across a sheet of scrap paper covered in scribbled notes from this long-ago evening, which also included the proposed title of Alistair's autobiography: "Vermin and physics".

But "Rock art or rockets" may become nicely relevant this year, as I am in discussions with Mr Phil Czwerwinski, who knows this area well, about doing something with both out at Woomera.

Happy New Year!

The heritage value of comets

In the short story Of late I dreamt of Venus by James van Pelt (The Mammoth Book of Best New SF 21, 2008, edited by Gardner Dozois, pp 84-99), various comets are manoeuvred into orbit around Venus, to provide water for terraforming. However, there is opposition:

There's a lobby defending Halley's Comet for its 'historical and traditional values', as well as several groups who argue that 'comets possess a lasting mythic and aesthetic relation with the people of Earth'.

Tranquility Base under threat

NewSpace Digest

Duncan Law-Green

ASTROBOTIC ANNOUNCES AMBITIOUS COMMERCIAL LUNAR EXPLORATION PROGRAMME: ROBOTIC RETURN TO TRANQUILITY BASE BY 2010

Astrobotic Technology Inc., one of the leading teams in the $20 million Google Lunar X-Prize (GLXP) has unveiled its plans for a series of robotic expeditions to build a commercial library of information on lunar science and engineering.

“Astrobotic will robotically explore the Moon’s high-interest areas on a commercial basis, collecting information required to design future outposts and to answer scientific questions about the Moon and Earth,” said President David Gump. “Our data library also will point the way to utilizing lunar energy and mineral resources to lower the cost of exploration and eventually supply markets on Earth.”

In addition to building a lunar data library, the company will deliver payloads, perform on-the-Moon services and generate interactive, high-definition media content for television, the Web, science centers and theme parks.

Astrobotic’s first lunar expedition is the "Tranquility Trek Mission" in May 2010 to the historic Apollo 11 landing site. The second and third missions are aimed for crater rims at the poles because NASA and other agencies plan to establish permanent outposts there. The lunar poles offer persistent sunlight for electrical power and moderate temperatures, plus potential water ice in permanently shadowed deep craters. The company expects that by 2013 it will send a robot into one of the deep polar craters to confirm if water ice can be mined to support future crews and refuel future spacecraft.

Additional missions will collect seismic data to chart the Moon’s interior, and a prototype Moondozer will test lunar construction technology.

Astrobotic Technology was formed in late 2007 and has secured lunar contracts from NASA and two commercial firms. Prototype rovers are now being field-tested at Carnegie Mellon University by Dr. William “Red” Whittaker, the firm’s Chairman. Prototype landing platforms have been constructed by Raytheon Co., using the company’s proven digital terrain matching technologies to achieve precision landings on the Moon. Mission planning and camera expertise is provided by the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at The University of Arizona. More information is available at www.astrobotictechnology.com

First Indian material culture on the Moon

I think this is terribly significant: the first nation-state outside the USA and former USSR has placed material on the moon. From ESA:

The Indian Space Research Organisation's lunar orbiter Chandrayaan-1 released a probe that impacted close to the lunar south pole on 14 November. Following this, the instruments on the spacecraft are being switched on to get the science observations started.

More at:

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Chandrayaan-1_starts_observations_of_the_Moon

Venus is so bright tonight

A lovely spring evening - as the sun set, I was sitting in the garden with my good friend the geophysicist I. Moffat, drinking red wine and watching how Venus caught the light of the dying sun. Mercury, also pretty spectacular. I thought to myself: I am looking at the planetary surface where the Veneras and the Vegas (complete with their diamond and sapphire windows) are sitting on the surface letting the slow winds caress them, an erosion process that will see them still intact when the solar system is at its last gasp.

Remembering also, that as a child I was fascinated by Babylonian observations of Venus. They seemed all the more mysterious, scientific and profound because I myself could not really see the stars. I was short-sighted from early childhood, and everything in the sky looked blurry to me. I also could not understand how my father recognised species of bird (he was a Neville W. Cayley fan from way back), assuming that some people could see things in patterns of flight that I was simply not capable of. Well, all that changed when I got glasses at age 11 - I could tell a planet from a star after all! And I could tell those bloody birds apart. Perhaps the heavens were so entrancing because I could not really see them. Perhaps the allure of science was all the stronger because of blurry vision ....

But possibly I digress. Venus is so bright tonight and I imagine myself a Babylonian astronomer, observing its phases. Taking the accumulation of traditional knowledge, thinking Tiamat (or whoever it was), and arriving at plausible theories for what was happening. Those guys were way cool.

I mentioned the red wine, right?

"A Fearsome Heritage" highly commended at British Archaeological Awards

Well, we didn't win, but the book was one of two runners-up highly commended by the judges. Well done to our fabulous editors John Schofield and Wayne Cocroft. Apparently Left Coast Press are considering a paperback edition now.

Dr Space Junk - movie star.

My darling friend Jack Dwyer, president of the Newcastle Space Frontier Society, wrote to me earlier in the year:

When does the DR. ALICE GORMAN AND THE SEARCH FOR SPACE JUNK movie come out again?! You know, a trilogy in at least four parts...:

DR. ALICE GORMAN AND THE MISSING MOONROCK.

DR. ALICE GORMAN AND THE SEARCH FOR THE STOLEN SKYLAB PIECE.

DR. ALICE GORMAN AND THE COSMOS INCIDENT.

I rather fancy this idea. I am full of demands at the moment, but if I can persuade someone to build me a model of the Love Pygmy, why can't an aspiring filmmaker take this on? Score by Philip Glass, of course.

The archaeology of the Love Pygmy

Last week I did an interview on ABC radio, and Jim Traill, the producer, asked me about the Love Pygmy. There is a story behind it, needless to say, which features among other things the Andaman Islands and Madame Helena Blavatsky. But it's complicated and I can't summon the brain strength on a Sunday arvo to explain how the Love Pygmy came about.

However, thinking about this, I thought someone ought to make me a model of the Love Pygmy. Real or virtual. I have a vision in my head of what I think the Love Pygmy should look like, and there are some parameters: the Love Pygmy has its own museum inside, and is capable of very quick and fluid on-orbit manoeuvres. It is also partly inspired by spacecraft scavenging as described in Tiger Tiger by Alfred Bester (I refuse to use the US title of this work). I think there may be a 1950s/60s aesthetic to it, but this is very vague.

So, any takers?

Rocket science and top hats

Yesterday I had a most amazing experience. At a session on Victorian etiquette, organised by Dr Heather Burke for her historical archaeology class, I met Mr John Smith (pictured here with Mavis Smith). He is a specialist in Victorian culture and - worked on Blue Streak at Spadeadam, Woomera and Kourou. It seemed so incongruous to be talking rockets with an elegantly attired Victorian gentleman! Of course we barely scratched the surface at this initial meeting, and I hope to catch up with him next week to learn more of his experiences.

Graveyard orbit on the World Heritage List

Don't get too excited, I'm just thinking about it.

The graveyard orbit is located above the Geostationary ring, where most of our telecommunications satellites operate. Many of them are left with sufficient fuel at the end of their mission life to boost them into this orbit, where they are out of the way and not contributing to the debris problems in GEO.

It's not that they are now simply inert - I have seen discussions of how material in the graveyard orbit can impact on spacecraft in GEO - and let's not forget that we're talking about many-body problems here with all the instabilities of non-linear systems, so they may not always just circle up there serenely - but to all intents and purposes nothin' is going on in the graveyard orbit. It's not premium space, no-one wants it at the moment for anything except as a junkyard.

So if we were going to propose anything for world heritage listing in space, this may be a good choice: uncontroversial in terms of competition for space resources, without the nationalist interests of places like the Moon, and easy to enforce!

The WHL cannot be applied to space at the present time, but I'm working on this with the help of my graduate student Nigel and space lawyer Anthony Wicht.

The question of its significance is another I'll have to investigate.

From Earth to space and back again

Last Monday my colleague Marc Twining, Senior Geologist with Iluka Resources Ltd, spoke to my Indigenous Heritage Management class about how mining exploration and heritage intersect. Iluka principally mine heavy mineral sands (HMS). Now I've done my research, so was well aware that these minerals (like rutile and ilmenite) end up in white pigments - paint, ceramics - this is why toilet bowls are so shiny and white! - but when Marc mentioned titanium being extracted from HMS, I made an obvious connection that had escaped me before.

Titanium is a metal very important to spacecraft manufacture. Pressurant tanks are usually made from it, and the USSR Venera series, which had to withstand the high pressures and temperatures of the Venusian surface, were constructed around titanium shells.

So there is, to my mind, a lovely symmetry here. Titanium is extracted from HMS on ancient beaches far below the present surface of the Earth, made into spacecraft which enter Low Earth Orbit, and when those spacecraft re-enter the Earth's atmosphere, the titanium spheres survive and fall back to Earth. If undiscovered, they may well become buried in their turn .....

This is my terrestrial/celestial dynamical system in action, complete with taphonomy.