Making Time with Amateur Astronomers and Orbital Space Debris
Attunement and the Matter of Temporality
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.33336Keywords:
Amateur Astronomy, Archaeology, Orbital Space Debris, TemporalityAbstract
This paper compares the material practice of amateur astronomers with that of archaeologists, specifically arguing that they engage with materials and time in distinct but complementary ways. In particular, the paper outlines the ways in which amateur astronomers become attuned to the temporal cycles and rhythms of extraterrestrial materials as they gaze into the night sky, much like how archaeological practitioners must get to know the taphonomic processes involved in the formation of archaeological sites. Finally, it is argued that for these reasons astronomers might offer insights to the investigation of orbital space debris, a topic of interest among archaeologists of outer space, and materials that produce their own threatening and nested temporalities.
References
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Born, G. 2015. “Making Time: Temporality, History, and the Cultural Object.” New Literary History 46 (3): 361–386. https://doi.org/10.1353/nlh.2015.0025
Capelotti, P. J. 2004. “Space: The Final (Archaeological) Frontier.” Archaeology 57 (6): 46–51.
____. 2010. The Human Archaeology of Space: Lunar, Planetary and Interstellar Relics of Exploration. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Publishers.
Ciufolini, I., E. Pavlis, F. Chieppa, E. Fernandes-Vieira and J. Pérez-Mercader. 1998. “Test of General Relativity and Measurement of the Lense-Thirring Effect with Two Earth Satellites.” Science 279 (5359): 2100–2103. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.279.5359.2100
Collis, C. 2009. “The Geostationary Orbit: A Critical Legal Geography of Space’s Most Valuable Real Estate.” Sociological Review 57 (suppl. 1): 47–65. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2009.01816.x
Connolly, W. E. 2013. The Fragility of Things: Self-Organizing Processes, Neoliberal Fantasies, and Democratic Activism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822377160
Damjanov, K. 2016. “Of Defunct Satellites and Other Space Debris: Media Waste in the Orbital Commons.” Science, Technology & Human Values 42 (1): 166–185. https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243916671005
David, L. 2013. “‘Sputnikfest’: How Wisconsin Celebrates Historic Fall of Soviet Satellite.” Space.com, 1 October. Available online: https://www.space.com/23029-sputnikfest-soviet-satellite-fall-wisconsin.html
Dawdy, S. L. 2006. “The Taphonomy of Disaster and the (Re)Formation of New Orleans.” American Anthropologist 108 (4): 719–730. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.2006.108.4.719
Denning, K. 2013. “Impossible Predictions of the Unprecedented: Analogy, History, and the Work of Prognostication.” In Astrobiology, History, and Society: Life Beyond Earth and the Impact of Discovery, edited by D. A. Vakoch, 301–312. Heidelberg: Springer. hhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35983-5_16
Dickens, P. 2009. “The Cosmos as Capitalism’s Outside.” Sociological Review 57 (Supp. 1): 66–82. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2009.01817.x
____. and J. S. Ormrod. 2007. Cosmic Society: Towards a Sociology of the Universe. London and New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203941508
Edgeworth, M. 2010. “Beyond Human Proportions: Archaeology of the Mega and the Nano.” Archaeologies 6 (1): 138–149. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11759-010-9125-9
Emhoff, J. 2009. “Space Basics: The Solar System.” In Handbook of Space Engineering, Archaeology, and Heritage, edited by A. Darrin and B. L. O’Leary, 49–68. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781420084320-c4
Gandy, M. 2017. “Negative Luminescence.” Annals of the American Association of Geographers 107 (5): 1090–1107. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2017.1308767
Gorman, A. 2005. “The Cultural Landscape of Interplanetary Space.” Journal of Social Archaeology 5 (1): 85–107. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469605305050148
____. 2009a. “The Archaeology of Space Exploration.” Sociological Review 57 (Supp. 1): 132–145. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199602001.013.040
____. 2009b. “The Gravity of Archaeology.” Archaeologist: Journal of the World Archaeological Congress 5 (2): 344–359. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11759-009-9104-1
____. 2014. “The Anthropocene in the Solar System.” Journal of Contemporary Archaeology 1 (1): 87–91. https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.v1i1.87
____. 2015. “Robot Avatars: The Material Culture of Human Activity in Earth Orbit.” In Archaeology and Heritage of the Human Movement into Space, edited by B. L. O’Leary and P. J. Capelotti, 29–47. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07866-3_3
____. 2017. “How the Rosetta Mission Created a New Archaeological Site in Space.” Anthropology News 58 (1). Available online: http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2017/01/13/comet-quest/
Harman, G. 2009. Prince of Networks: Bruno Latour and Metaphysics. Melbourne: re.press.
Idziak, L. A. 2013. “Cultural Resources Management in Outer Space: Historic Preservation in the Graveyard Orbits.” Synesis (2013): G61–G75. Available online: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2407222
Ingold, T. 2012. “Toward an Ecology of Materials.” Annual Review of Anthropology 41: 427–442. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-081309-145920
____. 2014. “The Creativity of Undergoing.” Pragmatics & Cognition 22 (1): 124–139. https://doi.org/10.1075/pc.22.1.07ing
____. and E. Hallam (eds). 2007. Creativity and Cultural Improvisation. Oxford: Berg.
Jay, M. 2012. Refractions of Violence. London and New York: Routledge.
Johnson, N. and H. Klinkrad. 2009. “The International Space Station and the Space Debris Environment: 10 Years On.” Orbital Debris Quarterly News 13 (2). Available online: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20090004997.pdf
Kessler, D. J. and B. G. Cour-Palais. 1978. “Collision Frequency of Artificial Satellites: The Creation of a Debris Belt.” Journal of Geophysical Research 83 (A6): 2637–2646. https://doi.org/10.1029/JA083iA06p02637
Klinkrad, H. 2010. “Space Debris.” In Encyclopedia of Aerospace Engineering, edited by R. Blockley and W. Shyy, online. New York: John Wiley and Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470686652.eae325
Koren, M. 2017. “The ‘Alien Megastructure’ Star Is Dimming Again.” The Atlantic, 19 May. Online: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/05/tabbys-star-alien-megastructure/527382/
Larson, D. O., C. P. Lipo and E. L. Ambos. 2003. “Application of Advanced Geophysical Methods and Engineering Principles in an Emerging Scientific Archaeology.” First Break 21: 51–62.
Lemoine, B. 2016. “‘What is That?!’ Unidentified, Unexplained Large Object Damages Man’s Van on Milwaukee’s North Side.” Fox 6 Now, 22 December. Available online: http://fox6now.com/2016/12/22/what-is-that-unidentified-unexplained-large-object-damages-mans-van-on-milwaukees-north-side/
Liou, J.-C., N. L. Johnson and N. M. Hill. 2010. Controlling the Growth of Future LEO Debris Populations with Active Debris Removal. Acta Astronautica 66 (5): 648–653. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2009.08.005
Marshall, P. J., C. J. Lintott, and L. N. Fletcher. 2015. “Ideas for Citizen Science in Astronomy.” Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics 53: 247–278. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-astro-081913-035959
McCray, W. P. 2008. Keep Watching the Skies!: The Story of Operation Moonwatch and the Dawn of the Space Age. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
McGuire, R. H. 2008. Archaeology as Political Action. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Messeri, L. 2016. Placing Outer Space: An Earthly Ethnography of Other Worlds. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822373919
O’Leary, B. L. 2006. “The Cultural Heritage of Space, the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies.” Antiquity 80 (307). Available online: http://www.antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/oleary/
____. 2015. “‘To Boldly Go Where No Man [sic] Has Gone Before’: Approaches in Space Archaeology and Heritage.” In Archaeology and Heritage of the Human Movement into Space, edited by B. L. O’Leary and P. J. Capelotti, 1–12. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07866-3_1
Pétursdóttir, Þ. 2014. “Things Out-of-Hand: The Aesthetics of Abandonment.” In Ruin Memories: Materialities, Aesthetics and the Archaeology of the Recent Past, edited by B. Olsen and Þ. Pétursdóttir, 335–364. London and New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315778211.ch19
Schiffer, M. 1987. Formation Processes of the Archaeological Record. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
____. 2013. The Archaeology of Science: Studying the Creation of Useful Knowledge. Heidelberg: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00077-0
Seidelmann, P. K. and J. H. Seago. 2011. “Time Scales, Their Users, and Leap Seconds.” Metrologia 48: S186. https://doi.org/10.1088/0026-1394/48/4/S09
Sousanis, N. 2015. Unflattening. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Topper, D. R. 2013. How Einstein Created Relativity out of Physics and Astronomy. New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4782-5
____. 1998. Timescapes of Modernity: The Environment and Invisible Hazards. London and New York: Routledge.
Aghili, F. 2012. “A Prediction and Motion-planning Scheme for Visually Guided Robotic Capturing of Free-Floating Tumbling Objects with Uncertain Dynamics.” IEEE Transactions on Robotics 28 (3): 634–649. https://doi.org/10.1109/TRO.2011.2179581
Barclay, R. and R. Brooks. 2009. “In Situ Preservation of Historic Spacecraft.” In Handbook of Space Engineering, Archaeology, and Heritage, edited by Ann Darrin and Beth L. O’Leary, 679–700. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781420084320-c37
Beck, C. M., J. Schofield and H. Drollinger. 2009. “Archaeologists, Activists, and a Contemporary Peace Camp.” In Contemporary Archaeologies: Excavating Now, edited by C. Holtorf and A. Piccini, 95–111. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Bernhard, R. P., E. L. Christiansen and D. J. Kessler. 1997. “Orbital Debris as Detected on Exposed Aircraft.” International Journal of Impact Engineering 20 (1): 111–120. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0734-743X(97)87485-4
Born, G. 2015. “Making Time: Temporality, History, and the Cultural Object.” New Literary History 46 (3): 361–386. https://doi.org/10.1353/nlh.2015.0025
Capelotti, P. J. 2004. “Space: The Final (Archaeological) Frontier.” Archaeology 57 (6): 46–51.
____. 2010. The Human Archaeology of Space: Lunar, Planetary and Interstellar Relics of Exploration. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Publishers.
Ciufolini, I., E. Pavlis, F. Chieppa, E. Fernandes-Vieira and J. Pérez-Mercader. 1998. “Test of General Relativity and Measurement of the Lense-Thirring Effect with Two Earth Satellites.” Science 279 (5359): 2100–2103. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.279.5359.2100
Collis, C. 2009. “The Geostationary Orbit: A Critical Legal Geography of Space’s Most Valuable Real Estate.” Sociological Review 57 (suppl. 1): 47–65. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2009.01816.x
Connolly, W. E. 2013. The Fragility of Things: Self-Organizing Processes, Neoliberal Fantasies, and Democratic Activism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822377160
Damjanov, K. 2016. “Of Defunct Satellites and Other Space Debris: Media Waste in the Orbital Commons.” Science, Technology & Human Values 42 (1): 166–185. https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243916671005
David, L. 2013. “‘Sputnikfest’: How Wisconsin Celebrates Historic Fall of Soviet Satellite.” Space.com, 1 October. Available online: https://www.space.com/23029-sputnikfest-soviet-satellite-fall-wisconsin.html
Dawdy, S. L. 2006. “The Taphonomy of Disaster and the (Re)Formation of New Orleans.” American Anthropologist 108 (4): 719–730. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.2006.108.4.719
Denning, K. 2013. “Impossible Predictions of the Unprecedented: Analogy, History, and the Work of Prognostication.” In Astrobiology, History, and Society: Life Beyond Earth and the Impact of Discovery, edited by D. A. Vakoch, 301–312. Heidelberg: Springer. hhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35983-5_16
Dickens, P. 2009. “The Cosmos as Capitalism’s Outside.” Sociological Review 57 (Supp. 1): 66–82. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2009.01817.x
____. and J. S. Ormrod. 2007. Cosmic Society: Towards a Sociology of the Universe. London and New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203941508
Edgeworth, M. 2010. “Beyond Human Proportions: Archaeology of the Mega and the Nano.” Archaeologies 6 (1): 138–149. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11759-010-9125-9
Emhoff, J. 2009. “Space Basics: The Solar System.” In Handbook of Space Engineering, Archaeology, and Heritage, edited by A. Darrin and B. L. O’Leary, 49–68. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781420084320-c4
Gandy, M. 2017. “Negative Luminescence.” Annals of the American Association of Geographers 107 (5): 1090–1107. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2017.1308767
Gorman, A. 2005. “The Cultural Landscape of Interplanetary Space.” Journal of Social Archaeology 5 (1): 85–107. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469605305050148
____. 2009a. “The Archaeology of Space Exploration.” Sociological Review 57 (Supp. 1): 132–145. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199602001.013.040
____. 2009b. “The Gravity of Archaeology.” Archaeologist: Journal of the World Archaeological Congress 5 (2): 344–359. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11759-009-9104-1
____. 2014. “The Anthropocene in the Solar System.” Journal of Contemporary Archaeology 1 (1): 87–91. https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.v1i1.87
____. 2015. “Robot Avatars: The Material Culture of Human Activity in Earth Orbit.” In Archaeology and Heritage of the Human Movement into Space, edited by B. L. O’Leary and P. J. Capelotti, 29–47. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07866-3_3
____. 2017. “How the Rosetta Mission Created a New Archaeological Site in Space.” Anthropology News 58 (1). Available online: http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2017/01/13/comet-quest/
Harman, G. 2009. Prince of Networks: Bruno Latour and Metaphysics. Melbourne: re.press.
Idziak, L. A. 2013. “Cultural Resources Management in Outer Space: Historic Preservation in the Graveyard Orbits.” Synesis (2013): G61–G75. Available online: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2407222
Ingold, T. 2012. “Toward an Ecology of Materials.” Annual Review of Anthropology 41: 427–442. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-081309-145920
____. 2014. “The Creativity of Undergoing.” Pragmatics & Cognition 22 (1): 124–139. https://doi.org/10.1075/pc.22.1.07ing
____. and E. Hallam (eds). 2007. Creativity and Cultural Improvisation. Oxford: Berg.
Jay, M. 2012. Refractions of Violence. London and New York: Routledge.
Johnson, N. and H. Klinkrad. 2009. “The International Space Station and the Space Debris Environment: 10 Years On.” Orbital Debris Quarterly News 13 (2). Available online: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20090004997.pdf
Kessler, D. J. and B. G. Cour-Palais. 1978. “Collision Frequency of Artificial Satellites: The Creation of a Debris Belt.” Journal of Geophysical Research 83 (A6): 2637–2646. https://doi.org/10.1029/JA083iA06p02637
Klinkrad, H. 2010. “Space Debris.” In Encyclopedia of Aerospace Engineering, edited by R. Blockley and W. Shyy, online. New York: John Wiley and Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470686652.eae325
Koren, M. 2017. “The ‘Alien Megastructure’ Star Is Dimming Again.” The Atlantic, 19 May. Online: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/05/tabbys-star-alien-megastructure/527382/
Larson, D. O., C. P. Lipo and E. L. Ambos. 2003. “Application of Advanced Geophysical Methods and Engineering Principles in an Emerging Scientific Archaeology.” First Break 21: 51–62.
Lemoine, B. 2016. “‘What is That?!’ Unidentified, Unexplained Large Object Damages Man’s Van on Milwaukee’s North Side.” Fox 6 Now, 22 December. Available online: http://fox6now.com/2016/12/22/what-is-that-unidentified-unexplained-large-object-damages-mans-van-on-milwaukees-north-side/
Liou, J.-C., N. L. Johnson and N. M. Hill. 2010. Controlling the Growth of Future LEO Debris Populations with Active Debris Removal. Acta Astronautica 66 (5): 648–653. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2009.08.005
Marshall, P. J., C. J. Lintott, and L. N. Fletcher. 2015. “Ideas for Citizen Science in Astronomy.” Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics 53: 247–278. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-astro-081913-035959
McCray, W. P. 2008. Keep Watching the Skies!: The Story of Operation Moonwatch and the Dawn of the Space Age. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
McGuire, R. H. 2008. Archaeology as Political Action. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Messeri, L. 2016. Placing Outer Space: An Earthly Ethnography of Other Worlds. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822373919
O’Leary, B. L. 2006. “The Cultural Heritage of Space, the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies.” Antiquity 80 (307). Available online: http://www.antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/oleary/
____. 2015. “‘To Boldly Go Where No Man [sic] Has Gone Before’: Approaches in Space Archaeology and Heritage.” In Archaeology and Heritage of the Human Movement into Space, edited by B. L. O’Leary and P. J. Capelotti, 1–12. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07866-3_1
Pétursdóttir, Þ. 2014. “Things Out-of-Hand: The Aesthetics of Abandonment.” In Ruin Memories: Materialities, Aesthetics and the Archaeology of the Recent Past, edited by B. Olsen and Þ. Pétursdóttir, 335–364. London and New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315778211.ch19
Schiffer, M. 1987. Formation Processes of the Archaeological Record. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
____. 2013. The Archaeology of Science: Studying the Creation of Useful Knowledge. Heidelberg: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00077-0
Seidelmann, P. K. and J. H. Seago. 2011. “Time Scales, Their Users, and Leap Seconds.” Metrologia 48: S186. https://doi.org/10.1088/0026-1394/48/4/S09
Sousanis, N. 2015. Unflattening. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Topper, D. R. 2013. How Einstein Created Relativity out of Physics and Astronomy. New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4782-5
Published
2018-06-04
Issue
Section
Research Article
How to Cite
Reno, J. O. (2018). Making Time with Amateur Astronomers and Orbital Space Debris: Attunement and the Matter of Temporality. Journal of Contemporary Archaeology, 5(1), 4-18. https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.33336
