Archaeology and Heritage of the Human Movement into Space by Beth Laura O’Leary & P. J. Capelotti

Author:Beth Laura O’Leary & P. J. Capelotti
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

Until our present era, though, it seems that there have been relatively few instances of humans creating objects which will be destroyed on purpose or even self-destruct. This is precisely the plan for orbital space equipment. The probability of any one example’s survival, while not impossible, thus becomes extremely unlikely.

Consideration of other historical examples of objects that have been purposely constructed to be ephemeral or to destroy themselves seems to be a worthwhile means of trying to understand how ephemera can be studied and what lessons can be learned about what evidence might be the most useful for future scholars. In brief, it will become clear that two primary possibilities exist for preserving useful evidence: replicating the objects, and recording and documenting ephemeral objects and the activities associated with their creation and use (a third possibility, study of the sites where ephemeral space equipment was developed, produced, and launched, also exists, but it presents less direct access to the actual space equipment; see Donaldson, this volume).

The following discussion will explore these possibilities with a view towards the establishment of priorities. Would it be more useful to create and preserve replicas of ephemeral technology, or to emphasize their thorough documentation? In some ways, these approaches are intertwined and overlap, since recordings and documents can help to vet the accuracy of copies. There are, as will be seen, also significant problems with both approaches.

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