Archaeology in Outer Space: The Sampling Quadrangle Assemblages Research Experiment (SQuARE) on the International Space Station

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

On 14 January 2022, NASA astronaut Kayla Barron placed adhesive tape on the walls of the International Space Station (ISS), marking the sample locations for the first archaeological work to be conducted in outer space. Over 60 days, ISS crew documented the station’s in situ material culture through daily photography of six areas. This payload, developed by the International Space Station Archaeological Project (ISSAP), and sponsored by the ISS National Laboratory, was called the Sampling Quadrangle Assemblages Research Experiment (SQuARE). The concept of SQuARE is derived from one of the most elementary terrestrial archaeological sampling techniques, the shovel test pit. Roughly square sample locations were defined in contexts nominally associated with science, work, hygiene, and eating, in order to understand how those spaces were actually used over a two-month period. ISSAP has analyzed 358 photos from SQuARE, identifying and locating each object within the squares in each day’s photo, using a purpose-built web tool. This work allows us to identify patterns of behavior and adaptation to the space environment, including isolation, confinement, and microgravity. The data generated will also be used to study decades of historic photos of life on ISS.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37309.0