New Insights from Archaeology into Life in Space: The Sampling Quadrangle Assemblages Research Experiment (SQuARE) on the International Space Station

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

From January to March 2022, astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) carried out the first documentation of in situ material culture from a space habitat. Since then, we have identified and marked the locations of thousands of artifacts in the 358 photographs made by the crew in six sample locations across the ISS. At the 2023 SAA Meetings, we presented our methodology and some preliminary, anecdotal observations from the SQuARE experiment. In this paper, we will present data, statistical analysis, and spatial analysis of the sample areas that allows for a re-assessment of ISS spaces and their functions based on their material culture. In this way, we demonstrate the validity of our methodology, while also generating actionable insights for designers and mission planners of future space habitats (who rarely have access to forensic analysis of previous ones).

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38940.0