![]() ![]() Cosmonaut photos show International Space Station from rare perspective What could space archaeologists tell us about astronaut culture? "If the same artifact type appears frequently in all six squares, which cover areas used for working, eating and performing experiments, then that may indicate it's an artifact with high multi-functionality: the sort of thing you want to make sure you have lots of when you're in a space station orbiting the moon or on the surface of Mars." It's about the patterns and routines of everyday life in microgravity," said Alice Gorman, Walsh's counterpart as co-principal investigator of the project and one of the world s leading scholars in the field of space archaeology. "What we'll learn is how objects circulate around the space station, and how long they stay in one spot. Microgravity migrationsĪrchaeologists on the ground use test pits to sample an area in a quick manner so they can get a better understanding of the entire site. ![]() A team of people, including specialists at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and at Axiom Space, a commercial space services company, will assist in identifying the objects captured in each square. The photographs will be transmitted back to Earth to be analyzed. "We want to capture the moment as it is, not as they might think we would want to see it." "We have specifically instructed the crew not to move any items," Justin Walsh, co-principal investigator for the International Space Station Archaeological Project and an archeologist whose research has included human activity in space, said in an interview with. Key to both months of documentation was that the astronauts did not do anything to the items inside the squares other than what they would do in their normal day-to-day, regular course of use. For the first month, the plan was to take photos around the same time every day, followed by a second month at random times, giving the team behind the study a chance to assess which approach was more effective to their needs. (Image credit: ISS Archeology Project)ĭaily photography began the next week, with a ruler and color calibration chart added to each shot for reference. The SQuARE mission patch was designed by cheatlines for the International Space Station Archaeological Project. lab module "Destiny," was the crew's choice based on what they considered interesting to document. ![]() The sixth square, which was placed on the one of the racks on the port side of the U.S. The selected sites included the galley table in Node 1 ("Unity") the starboard workstation in Node 2 ("Harmony") two science racks, one each on the forward walls of both the Japanese "Kibo" and European "Columbus" modules and the wall across from the WHC (the waste and hygiene compartment, or toilet) in Node 3 ("Tranquility"). "The idea is to look at the ISS as an archaeological site, and each of the squares as a 'test pit.'" Social science in spaceīarron, a flight engineer on the Expedition 66 (opens in new tab) crew, used Kapton polyamide tape - a common adhesive (opens in new tab) used on the orbiting complex - to mark off the corners of 1-meter (39-inch) squares in five areas chosen by the International Space Station Archaeological Project. "SQuARE is an investigation that aims to document items within six defined locations around the ISS over time," the space agency wrote (opens in new tab). ![]()
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