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Alice Gorman, space archaeologist

Dr Alice Gorman's fascination with space junk bridges the worlds of traditional archaeology and space science.

Alice Gorman

I'm an archaeologist but I'm also in that lovely position of feeling very warmly accepted by the space community. (Source: Ashton Claridge/Flinders University)


When I tell people I'm a space archaeologist …

The first reaction is that they assume that I'm using remote sensing to look at sites on Earth. Then I say: 'No, no, no, I'm actually looking at rockets and planetary landing sites and orbital debris'. And then sometimes there's a look of puzzlement, then a little bit of a think, then I'll see an expression of revelation and they'll say: "Oh you're actually looking at those things!" So either they'll think it's really crazy or ok, that all makes sense

I became interested in space archaeology …


Working in an emerging field …

Is challenging, exciting and invigorating. You have that feeling that you can shape things. There's that excitement of having an impact on how the field might develop.

And also to do this I've had to step outside the normal archaeological circles. I'm an archaeologist but I'm also in that lovely position of feeling very warmly accepted by the space community. So part of what I do is bridge the divide between an area that's social sciency and something that's very hard sciency.

Currently I …

Have a new obsession, which is cable ties. And before you think that that's some weird kinky thing, cable ties are a tiny piece of technology that is critical in things like wiring spacecraft and antennas and data processors and space facilities.

At the moment I'm trying to track the spread of plastic cable ties throughout all of these associated industries and their migration into everyday life. They're everywhere, we don't even think them, we use them for all kinds of things that have nothing to do with space or technology or anything.

The best part of my work is…

Finding all of these really obscure bits of information, or obscure artefacts (like the cable ties) and putting them together to make a story that has never been told.

The biggest issues facing Australian archaeology…

One of the big issues is how we tell our stories so that people can get excited about Australian archaeology. To date you might say that we haven't done that particularly well. The Australian public are more likely to know what the Time Team do than they know about the recent discovery of Lapita pottery in Papua New Guinea, or the amazing work that's being done on Aboriginal sites all over Australia.

Another big issue is that we haven't yet properly worked out the balance between development and protection of places that are significant to all kinds of communities.

The biggest challenge in my job is …

I'm a full-time university lecturer so finding enough time, enough brain space to sit down for a full day and focus on my research is so hard to do. There are so many avenues I could explore and so many things that I want to do that I have to be really strategic and careful and I do find it really frustrating.

At school I …

Read non-stop. I was the classic book worm. I never had my head out of a book. I always knew what I wanted to do. I always had a bigger aim in mind, I knew I was going to be an archaeologist.

My non-science obsessions are…

I collect tea cups — I'm very fond of 1960s teacups. I also collect fans which I use during the summer. And I read science fiction.

Right now I'm reading…

The latest Stephanie Plum novel by Janet Evanovich called Explosive Eighteen. I'm not above reading trash, it's very good for making the brain relax.

I've also put a book called Hyperspace by Michio Kaku in my bag to read while I'm away at the Australian Archaeological Association's conference. It's a book about the physics and mathematics of hyperspace. I've read it before but it's a good one.

Dr Alice Gorman is lectures in archaeology at Flinders University. She is also an adjunct fellow at the Australian National University's Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics. Alice publishes a blog called Space Age Archaeology. She was interviewed by Genelle Weule.

Tags: archaeology, astronomy-space

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Published 20 December 2011