iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Earth seen from the Moon, in a still from the 1953 black-and-white movie Cat-Women of the Moon. 🧪 🔭

In the right a rough, mountainous barely-illuminated lunar surface, in the left a grey Earth hanging against a black sky.

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

In a 2023 report for the Global Expert Group on Sustainable Lunar Activity, I discussed the ethical implications of studying human biological materials on the Moon. The standards of consent, privacy and cultural appropriateness used on Earth should also apply. 🧪 🏺 #SpaceArchaeology

5.10 Protocols for human biological remains
The six Apollo missions left behind an estimated 96 bags containing human waste, as well as
urine collection devices. The legal status of the astronaut waste is not clear. Lopez (2020)
argues that it does not satisfy the definition of a ‘space object’. While NASA as the launching
state owns the bags, it may not own the biological materials within.
These substances have scientific value for what they may reveal about the impacts of
radiation on DNA, the human microbiome, particularly from the gut, and the survival of
microfauna in extreme planetary environments. However, they also have a high sensitivity as
they relate to living people or their descendants. In recent years sensibilities about genetic
material and human remains have been a matter of much debate, particularly in relation to
violations of the autonomy and dignity of Indigenous people and other groups such as
criminals (Alpasian-Roodenberg et al 2021, Kowal 2013, McQueen 1998).
The analysis of the waste materials risks revealing personal and medical information about
the astronauts which they may wish to keep private. In the case of DNA, contemporary
methods such as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) can replicate the DNA and produce
large quantities for distribution and further analysis. Should this be done without the consent
of the person to whom the DNA or biological material belongs? Who has rights to the genetic
material?
36
Most contemporary institutions have ethics approval processes for conducting research on
human subjects, including archaeological human remains. It will be critical to ensure that any
study of Apollo astronaut waste complies with currently accepted standards for such
research.

1294

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Just think. Earth is full of war, but the Moon is full of peace.

The path to the Moon. by WT Horton. From A Book of Images, 1898. Public domain. A path leads against a black sky studded with stars to the Moon.

6393

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Protecting Lunar Heritage: Developing Guidelines and Recommendations for Controlled Lunar Deorbiting Free seminar, online, and in person in Pisa, Italy, 14 September, 14.00 CEST 🧪 🔭 🏺 #SpaceHeritage #PlanetSci internationalmoonday.org/event/protec...

International Moon Day 2016
Protecting Lunar Heritage
Developing guidelines and recommendations for controlled lunar deorbiting
14 September 2026 14.00 (CEST)
Hybrid event by ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Aerospace Heritage
In person: Room PAO B1
Palazzo Carita, via Pasquale Paoli, 15-Pisa, Italy
Online: Scan QR code to register

0318

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Here's a little screenshot of me appearing on the same panel as Kim Stanley Robinson at À L'École de l'Anthropocène in 2022!

Screenshot of a Zoom screen with Alice Gorman on the left, an unknown person in the middle, and Kim Stanley Robinson on the right.

1340

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

#Academics let's celebrate the edited book chapter! What is an edited book chapter that you're particularly proud of, or one you think deserves more readers? Mine is this one...

38
A POST-GEOCENTRIC GRAVITOGRAPHY OF HUMAN CULTURE
Alice Gorman

3182

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Ten years ago I presented a screening and talk about the kooky space-themed comedy film Way ...Way Out, starring Jerry Lewis, Connie Stevens and Anita Ekberg. 'Would going to the Moon open the doors to utopia, or simply expand the realm of Earthly foibles?' 🧪 🔭 #FilmSky

Poster for Step Back! 1966 in Review. Title: Way....way out. Mad men on the Moon.

In 1966, the Apollo moon landings were still in the future and the Cold War was freezing. Communism and capitalism battled for control of space but the frontline was also in the living rooms and bedrooms of domestic space, as gender relations underwent a seismic shift. Would going to the Moon open the doors to utopia, or simply expand the realm of Earthly foibles? Dr Alice Gorman explores this question through a lunar comedy starring Jerry Lewis, Connie Stevens and Anita Ekberg.

2192

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Did I do it on Twitter? I'll have to look for it!

A Picture of Alyonka chocolate, with one whole chocolate, a 1/2 showing the three layers inside, and the wrapping with a baby wearing a head scarf on it.

010

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

It's like the mirror in The Snow Queen (from Wikipedia)

A mirror and its fragments
The devil, in the form of a troll,[2] has made a magic mirror that distorts the appearance of everything that it reflects. The mirror does not reflect the good and beautiful aspects of people and things but magnifies their bad and ugly aspects. The troll's minions take the mirror all over the world to distort everything, then carry it up to Heaven to mock God and the Angels. As they approach Heaven, the mirror trembles and falls, shattering into billions of pieces. Some become windowpanes, some spectacles, and some get stuck in people's hearts and eyes, giving them a cold and bitter disposition. The troll laughs himself sore at his mischief.

030

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

A bunch of years ago I gave a talk on space archaeology, and a Men's Rights Activist group in the UK set up a website dedicated to mocking me. This is what one of them said. 🏺 #WomenInSTEM

So basically, this woman got tired of all the physical labour required to work in isolation, doing traditional Archaeology, and quit to take an easier job. This is why MEN create, discover and prosper, while women complain of imaginary 'glass ceilings'.

6642073

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

The US FCC is looking to make it easier to launch large batches of satellites for megaconstellations, if I read this correctly. aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/fcc-votes-to... 🧪 🔭 🛰️

FCC on July 1 published the Space Modernization Order outlining the changes, which include establishing “a licensing assembly line” to process applications for satellite licenses, potentially in batches as opposed to separate approvals for each satellite in a large constellation. The order is among several planned overhauls to U.S. space licensing that were prompted by various 2025 White House executive orders.

6156

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Ohhh that's interesting. In relation to how people perceive you/her. I talked about her in my book (see below). But your weird clay ball sounds intriguing! 🏺

$"the bones weaken and are prone to fracture. Effectively, if people want future settlements in space to succeed, there are going to have to be some longer term solutions to living in reduced gravity, and this will be critical for women’s partici- pation. Venus of Willendorf has to become an astronaut."$

030

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

A fashion designer has to think creatively in order to retain his sweatshop workers in Malaysia.

180

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Look at this, the AI Overview on Google Search being 100% wrong because of its inability to understand the sources. The Cat was the Riviera Kid, not Lister. #RedDwarf

Parodies and Characters
During this Wild West game, the main characters take on classic cowboy roles and alter-egos:
The Riviera Kid (Dave Lister): A cool, deadly gunslinger.
Brett Riverbolt / Knife Man (Cat): A knife-throwing expert.
Sheriff (Kryten): An alcoholic sheriff who sobers up to fight.
Bear Strangler McGee (Arnold Rimmer): A tough, bearded saloon fighter.

1195

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

The archaeological record of asteroid Ryugu: three craters, four hopping rovers, a camera, an impactor, and four reflective markers left by the Hayabusa 2 mission in 2018. 🧪 🔭 🏺 #Planetci

The grey, gently rounded surface of asteroid Ryugu with black sky. One round silver marker, one cylindrical hopping rover, one hopping rover shown mid air and a surface probe with an octagonal cross-section are shown. Image credit JAXA with additions by author.

3325

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

This is something I've written about! moonvillageassociation.org/gegsla/docum...

040

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Want to know what famous romance author Barbara Cartland thought of cosmonaut Valentina Tereshova's groundbreaking space flight in 1963? Look no further! (Source: Daily Mail, June 17, 1963) 🧪 💙📚 #WomenInSTEM

Barbara Cartland. Unless she’s going to have a baby in space, I can’t see the point of sending a woman. After all, having a baby is the only thing a woman can do that a man can’t. This seems like a Russian gimmick to capture attention.

Photograph of Barbara Cartland sitting on a chair in a pink puffy dress holding a dog with vases of roses and a green carpet.

11539

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Bubbles don't always look like soap bubbles. This image shows the paths of subatomic particles in the superheated liquid hydrogen of a bubble chamber. This also shares similarities with the geometry of the lunar surface. 🧪 #PlanetSci

Bubble chamber photograph of FERMILAB experiment E632. Black lines showing the curled paths of subatomic particles in a liquid.

2321

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Do you know what else has the distinctive circular topography we see on the Moon? Bubbles. (Image credit: Shutterstock) 🧪 #PlanetSci

Bubbles of different sizes rising through a liquid. Background is a faint golden colour.

51017

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

This image shows how raindrops make craters which resemble a lunar surface. These were found in dried mud from the Lehigh Portland Cement Quarry, Leeds, Alabama. 🧪 #PlanetSci

Modern rainprints in dried mud from Lehigh Portland Cement Quarry, Leeds, Alabama, collected by W. Edward Osborne (Geological Survey of Alabama). The scale is in centimeters. The largest print, showing a spattered rim, is too large to be the impression of a normal raindrop and may be the result of drip or hail. It is overlapped by the rainprints from subsequent raindrops. Some rainprints overlap one another as well.

Source: Gas-escape structures and their paleoenvironmental significance at the Steven C. Minkin Paleozoic Footprint Site (Early Pennsylvanian, Alabama)
January 2005
In book: Pennsylvanian footprints in the Black Warrior Basin of Alabama (Alabama Paleontological Society Monograph 1) (pp.177-183)Chapter: Gas-escape structures and their paleoenvironmental significance at the Steven C. Minkin Paleozoic Footprint Site (Early Pennsylvanian, Alabama) Publisher: Alabama Paleontological SocietyEditors: Ronald J. Buta, Andrew K. Rindsberg, David C. Kopaska-Merkel

317115

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

'AI Image Disclaimer: Some visuals used in connection with this article may be AI-generated for interpretive representation.' This is what an AI thinks the Voyager spacecraft look like. 🧪 🔭 *screams endlessly into the void*

Very bad AI image of the Voyager spacecraft, with the proportions and technology all wrong.

136111

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Here is another 'lunar' surface formed by rain falling on sandy mud. This illustration appears in Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology (9th edition, 1853). 🧪 #PlanetSci

Black and white line drawing of rain prints, formed July 21, 1849, at Kentville, Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia. An arrow shows the direction of the rain shower. From Charles Lyell, The Principles of Geology, 9th edition, 1853

2654

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

There's lots of things I like about this photo. It shows the circular topography of the lunar surface, like raindrops falling on mud or soft cement. Compare it to this image of fossilised raindrops from the Triassic period, 251 mya to 200 mya. 🧪 #PlanetSci

Raindrops fossilised on a surface from the Triassic period, 251 million years ago to 199.6 mya, at Great Notch in New Jersey, USA. Credit: Breck P. Kent

1822

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Last night I went through all the released photographs from Artemis II and pulled out those I thought would be useful for my research. This is a lovely one. (Image credit: NASA)

The surface of the Moon in dark grey, showing craters of many sizes including old, worn ones and newer, sharper ones. Upper left corner of image in darkness.

939463

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Photograph taken by the Artemis II crew. #Moon 🧪 🔭

Image of the total eclipse of the Moon while Artemis II was going around it. Completely black with a barely visible whisp of light.

2342

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

I've written a few articles for The Conversation over the years! I rather liked this symmetrical number of reads, measured just now. @flindersuniversity.bsky.social @aunz.theconversation.com #SciComm

Image shows author dashboard from news site The Conversation. Overview all articles. 67 articles with 2,704,704 reads.

0151

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

The ancestors of these 140 million-year-old radiolaria single-celled fossils lived in Earth's oceans while the Moon's crust was creaking and cracking with tectonic forces. These microscopic beings swam under moonlight and sunlight, sensing their own astronomy. (Image credit: Robin et al 2010) 🧪

Black-and-white image taken under a scanning electron microscope of the lacy silicon skeletons of radiolaria fossils from the late Jurassic to early Cretaceous period. The fossils come from a deposit in Iran.

27917

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Pluto and US space power: what happened when New Horizons flew by in 2015. zoharesque.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-... 🧪 #PlanetSci

When telemetry showed that New Horizons had successfully completed its flyby, many in the mission control room waved American flags. Nationalism and national prestige are still among the main drivers of today’s space industry, despite the growth of private and crowd-funded space enterprises. As I watched the flag-waving, I thought that, for some people at least, the passage of a piece of space hardware has been the equivalent of planting a flag – as it was on the Moon – to stamp the outer solar system as part of an American colonial landscape. And indeed, one of the ‘cultural artefacts’ on board the spacecraft was also a US flag, in stark contrast to the universal symbols on the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft.

1130

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Blown away to be featured in Dallas Campbell's beautiful new book 'Space Journal'. #SpaceArchaeology 🧪 🏺

Pages from Space Journal by Dallas Campbell. Photo of Alice Gorman looking at a model of the Sputnik 1 satellite, reading a Soviet magazine with Yuri Gagarin on the cover.

4503

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

The idea that an urge or imperative to explore is universal is part of what I call the Space Race Model - a rationale for space exploration which conceals its patriarchal, colonialist roots (from Gorman 2019). 🧪

I call this package of beliefs about space the ‘Space Race
Model’, by which I mean a theoretical structure used to inter-
pret the history of space exploration. Because it’s presented
as a natural inclination, the ‘urge to explore’ conceals the
other motives for space exploration, such as military advan-
tage, national prestige and access to resources. For something
meant to be a universal characteristic, the urge is very une-
venly distributed. The division of nation-states into ‘space-
faring’ and ‘non-spacefaring’ surely belies the idea that space
exploration is a universal human endeavour arising from
a deep evolutionary past. If human ancestors experienced
the urge to explore, then contemporary Indigenous people,
for example, are not assumed to have inherited it; they, and
other groups, are meant to be the recipients of space benefits
rather than the suppliers. I don’t think you would ever hear

4294

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

I'm watching the 1972 War and Peace. Captions are turned on and they're comical - a blacksmith's hammer striking iron is rendered 'music', and the sounds of battle are 'applause'.

Artillery weapons firing in a battle of the Napoleonic war with Russia in the 1800s.

3141

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Details of Yuri's food on the Vostok from the transcript of the voyage. He had 63 dragees! (A dragee is a piece of confectionary with a hard sugar shell). Source: Sputnik News, 2022 #YurisNight 🧪

Korolev: Jura, how are you? Receiving.
Gagarin: As I was taught. Everything's fine, everything's all right. Can you hear me alright? Receiving.
Korolev: There is lunch, dinner and breakfast in the tube.
Korolev: Sausage, dragees and jam for tea.
Korolev: 63 pieces, you'll become fat.
Gagarin: Ho-ho.
Korolev: You'll arrive today and eat it all at once.
Gagarin: No, the main thing is the sausage, goes with the brew.

1193

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

I'm pretty sure that the "America 250" banner has not been up for most of the mission, and was likely put up for the audience with Trump. #ArtemisII

Interior of Orion capsule showing the four astronauts underneath a US flag, a Canadian flag, and an America 250 flag.

3232

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

'Maybe our eyes don’t suit the Moon'. - Gorman (me), How we let the moon die & why it isn’t dead, from Mythologies of Outer Space, 2025

Colour, then, is less uncommon on the Moon than we might think; but our insistence on correlating colour and life may be at least partially a result of prioritizing human senses such as vision, evolved for terrestrial circumstances. Maybe our eyes don’t suit the Moon. Other Earth animals, with fewer cones for colour perception and more rods for light perception, live in a visual world that is no less rich than ours. On the other hand, human eyes are not even the pinnacle of colour perception. The mantis shrimp is known for having the most complex eyes and sophisticated vision in the world of the eyed, with sixteen photoreceptors as opposed to the human three, and the ability to see polarized and ultraviolet light (Cronin et al. 2022). We can only guess at the shades that different eyes might distinguish in the shadowed realms of the lunar surface. And we haven’t even started on the acoustic landscape.

1184

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

A Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo badge, perhaps like this one from 2025, has gone to the Moon with the official #ArtemisII flight kit. Perhaps because Mission Control is in Houston?

370

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

This is what the #ArtemisII crew will use to assist them in their lunar observations as they fly by over five hours of closest approach to the Moon. 🧪

Screen shot of the lunar observation software the astronauts will use.

33010

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

In his 2020 paper A Study of Space Bathroom Design, Zachary Taylor says using the bathroom in space should be 'less of a dreaded necessity and more of an integral and regenerative ritual of living in space’. I could not agree more! #ArtemisII 🧪

Pictures of a 'squat' space toilet and toilet room with rounded corners for easy cleaning. Quote from Zachary Taylor 2020 paper A Study in Space Bathroom Design: using the bathroom in space should be '‘less of a dreaded necessity and more of an integral and regenerative ritual of living in space’.

2720

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Space toilets are political! International relations on the ground can determine when and where crew get to poop .... and political priorities in funding can mean equipment is not updated. #ArtemisII 🧪

Two online articles - from 2009, headline is "Cosmonauts banned from using astronauts' space station toilet" and from 2020, "A broken toilet and faulty oxygen supply ruined the night on the International Space Station"

1637

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

This is astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti explaining how the International Space Station toilet works, in 2015. In 2020, NASA finally installed a toilet designed for women's bodies. (YES. You heard right.) The first ISS module was launched in 1998. 🧪 #ArtemisII

Astronaut Sam Cristoforetti stands in the toilet in the International Space Station, holding the yellow suction cup. Picture on right shows the new NASA space toilet, costing 23 million dollars, that was installed in 2020.

49819

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Here's some more space toilets. Left: US Skylab (1973 to 1979). Right: a Chinese space toilet (could be any time from 2011 to 2021). I'm not convinced that the Chinese one is real, it could be a mock-up. #ArtemisII 🧪

Skylab space toilet on the right, a Chinese one on the left.

1604

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Here are some real-life space toilets. The USSR was ahead of the US in space toilet technology as they started designing space stations in 1971. Left: Mir space station toilet (1986 to 2001). Right: US Space Shuttle toilet (1981 to 2011) #ArtemisII 🧪

Left: Space toilet from the Mir space station. Left: space toilet from the US space shuttle..

215012

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Let's look at fictional space toilets. This is the zero gravity toilet from 2001: A Space Odyssey. There are 10 complicated steps including: 'To secure after use, press the green button which simultaneously activates the evaporator and returns the uroliminator to its storage position'. #ArtemisII

Instructions on how to use the 2001: A Space Odyssey toilet:
ZERO GRAVITY TOILET
PASSENGERS ARE ADVISED TO
READ INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE USE
The toilet is of the standard zero-gravity type. Depending on requirements, System A and/or System B can be used, details of which are clearly marked in the toilet compartment. When operating System A, depress lever and a plastic dalkron eliminator will be dispensed through the slot immediately underneath. When you have fastened the adhesive lip, attach connection marked by the large "X" outlet hose. Twist the silver coloured ring one inch below the connection point until you feel it lock.
The toilet is now ready for use. The Sonovac cleanser is activated by the small switch on the lip. When securing, twist the ring back to its initial-condition, so that the two orange line meet. Disconnect. Place the dalkron eliminator in the vacuum receptacle to the rear. Activate by pressing the blue button.
The controls for System B are located on the opposite wall. The red release switch places the uroliminator into position; it can be adjusted manually up or down by pressing the blue manual release button. The opening is self adjusting. To secure after use, press the green button which simultaneously activates the evaporator and returns the uroliminator to its storage position.
You may leave the lavatory if the green exit light is on over the door. If the red light is illuminated, one of the lavatory facilities is not properly secured. Press the "Stewardess" call button on the right of the door. She will secure all facilities from her controll panel outside. When gren exit light goes on you may open the door and leave. Please close the door behind you.
To use the Sonoshower, first undress and place all your clothes in the clothes rack. Put on the velcro slippers located in the cabinet immediately below. Enter the shower. On the control panel to your upper right upon entering you will see a "Shower seal" button. Press to activate. A green light…

71266

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

In 'A Study of Space Bathroom Design' (one of my all-time favourite papers for its beauty and elegance), space architect Zachary Taylor describes the brutality of space toilets. The picture is a submarine toilet - a similar confined space with no possibility of popping outside. 🧪 #ArtemisII

Slide text: a quote from ‘The concept of the ‘bathroom’ in space habitats has typically been applied with only the most fundamental human requirements in mind, resulting in unpleasant, uninspiring, or even brutal areas to perform tasks intrinsic to our physiological health and overall mortality”.
(Taylor 2020) Zachary Taylor A Study of Space Bathroom Design
Image : a submarine toilet

318613