Alice Gorman: Dr Space Junk

Dr Alice Gorman, aka Dr Space Junk, is an internationally recognised leader in the field of space archaeology. Her research focuses on the archaeology and heritage of space exploration, including space junk, planetary landing sites, off-earth mining, rocket launch pads and antennas. She is a Senior Lecturer at Flinders University in Adelaide and a Director on the Board of the Space Industry Association of Australia.

In her DotTalk at bluedot 2019, Alice Gorman revealed that space is not as empty as we may think. By looking up and studying space junk across the solar system, we learn an awful lot about our own societies on Earth. Artefacts from the Space Age – like those left at the Apollo 11 landing site on the Moon – are significant to us now because they remind us of our aspirations for the future. As a new race to the Moon speeds up, it’s important to think about the values we want to hold onto as humans evolve into a multigravity species.