The 'write stuff' from space history

From the cover of the Flinders University publication - ‘Olympic Game Communication Satellite Birds’, courtesy ‘NASA on the Commons’. It shows “replicas of the covey (flock) of synchronous communication satellites that were used to televise the 19th Olympic Games from Mexico City to audiences in Europe and Japan. The satellites are shown at Hughes Aircraft Company, Culver City, California where they were built for NASA and Comsat Corporation. In the centre is a full-scale model of the Intelsat II satellite, which was used by Comsat to send colour TV direct to Japan via a Hughes ground station installed near San José, California. Left of Intelsat is the NASA’s ATS-3 (Application Technology Satellites), which transmitted the picture portion of the Olympics to Europe and the Early Bird (right) transmitted the voice commentary of the European telecast in a dozen languages. These communication satellites went into orbit over the Atlantic in April 1965.

World Space Week is under way this week, with hundreds of events around the world celebrating the theme of satellite technology and other topics.

As well as Flinders University’s Dr Space Junk (Associate Professor Alice Gorman) taking part in several #WSW2020 and #worldspaceweek international events, a newly published volume of student articles showcases the University’s popular Archaeology of Modern Society course.

The anthology of 1950s space history, led with a foreword by award-winning author and Eureka Prize finalist, space critic Ceridwen Dovey, the edited collection of work looks at how space objects are connected to everyday life.

They range from descriptions of early versions of the satellite dish and space blanket, through to the development of the Fortis B-42 cosmonaut watch and scratch resistant glasses.

Edited by leading archaeology academics Associate Professor Gorman, Professor Heather Burke and Associate Professor Lynley Wallis, the book’s theme SPACE: An Exploration of Objects (published by Wallis Heritage Consulting) includes some interesting perspectives. It is the first of a new series of anthologies from graduates of the course.

“Every time you gaze at the night sky, you’re also potentially viewing the 2,000 or so satellites that provide us with telecommunications, weather predictions, automatic teller machines and GPS navigation,” the editors say in the introduction.

“Satellite services in some form are accessed by almost everyone on the planet through hand-held devices that have changed the way we move around the world.”

ARCH2212, ‘The Archaeology of Modern Society’ is a core topic in the second year of the Bachelor of Archaeology program at Flinders. The topic is designed to explore how material culture of daily life in the 20th and 21st century can still tell archaeologists a great deal about human culture.

One of the contributors, Melanie Ward, summarises the NASA mission patch, used to identify astronaut missions during and after a space mission.

Ms Ward, who continues to support science and STEM initiatives at Flinders University, is this week supporting a virtual Space Health Symposium.

The anthology from 2017 was compiled when the Space Industry Association of Australia (SIAA) hosted one of the world’s biggest space gatherings — the International Astronautical Congress — in Adelaide. The international Cosmic Welcome Mat project which featured at the 2017 IAC will also revisit this year’s virtual IAC, one of the largest astronautical conferences in the world.

Next month, Associate Professor Gorman and fellow space archaeologist Dr Justin Walsh are leading the ARC-funded International Space Station research project which will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Expedition 1 to the International Space Station.

Associate Professor Gorman is on the advisory council of the SIAA, vice-chair of the Adelaide chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a UN Office of Outer Space Affairs Space4Women Mentor.

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