humanity's stuff in space: save? ignore? delete? kathryn denning york university
TRANSCRIPT
Monthly Number of Catalogued Objects in Earth Orbit by Object Type.
n.b. ‘Fragmentation’ = satellite breakup and anomalous event debris, as opposed to ‘mission-related’ debris, which is intentional. Source: Orbital Debris Quarterly News, vol
10 issue 2, April 2006. NASA. Catalogued by U.S. Space Surveillance Network.
Objects in Low Earth
Orbit –
approximately 95% of objects
are orbital debris rather
than functional satellites.
(dots not to scale!)
Source: NASA
Effective number of LEO objects, 10 cm and larger, from simulation by J.-C. Liou and N.L. Johnson. Best-case scenario based on assumption of no new launches after 1 Jan 2005. Source: Orbital Debris Quarterly News, vol 10 issue 2, April 2006. NASA, and Science 20 Jan 2006.
STILL OUT THERE…. From top left, by row:Ranger 4, impact 1962Ranger 7, impact 1964, first US moon imagesLuna 9, USSR, 1966Surveyor, US, 1966Luna 13, USSR, 1966Luna 16, USSR, 1970Luna 17/Lunakhod 1, USSR lander + first rover, 1970Lunakhod 2 rover, 1973, + landerLuna 1, USSR flyby in 1959, now in heliocentric orbit
Plaque left on the moon surface as part of the Apollo
11 mission.
(It would be so nice if all
archaeological sites were
helpfully labelled for posterity like
this.)
Space Heritage Task Force of the World Archaeological Congress
2004 onwards
Some of our objectives:
* Identify examples of places, sites, and objects that have exceptional cultural value and whose preservation will benefit all humankind
* Propose a set of cultural, historical, social and scientific criteria for preserving space heritage places of exceptional cultural heritage value
* Investigate avenues for preservation within existing legal frameworks, e.g. World Heritage Convention
* Figure out which institutions might support programs of preservation / protection
Questions for you – as scholars, citizens of nation(s) and the world, and human beings:
What categories of objects or sites do you think should be preserved? (If any.) Why?
In general, what should the criteria (cultural, historical, scientific) be for identifying exceptionally
important objects or sites?