The Dead Past

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It kind of makes me wonder how old does something have to be for it to be archaeological? We did we have to wait until we had gotten enough junk up there and it was old enough? Can something be archaeological if it's only 10 minutes old? My answer to that is absolutely it can be. Isaac Asimov actually wrote a very interesting short story about this called the dead past. A time machine had been invented but no archaeologist or historian was allowed to look into the past. And it is because the past could start a millisecond ago.

Gaze into the cosmos and wonder at broken satellites, retired rockets and shattered contraptions. Archaeologist Dr. Alice Gorman is a leading expert on orbital debris and chats about what’s up there, how it got there, and how to get it down. Strap in to hear about everything from Sputnik to sports cars, flaming garbage bonking us, alien clutter, collision potential, the most adorable space rubbish, cosmic burials and how one does this type of archeology without boarding a rocket. Also: steaming hot cruise ship gossip.

Follow Dr. Alice Gorman at Twitter.com/DrSpaceJunk

A donation went to Deadly Science: https://deadlyscience.org.au/

Dr. Gorman’s book: Dr. Space Junk vs. The Universe

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Sound editing by Jarrett Sleeper of MindJam Media & Steven Ray Morris

Theme song by Nick Thorburn