Senior Lecturer in archaeology and space studies, Flinders University
Dr Alice Gorman is a professional archaeologist who has worked for over 20 years in Indigenous heritage management, providing heritage advice for mining industry, urban development, government departments, local council, and Aboriginal Native Title groups.
Her research involves the cultural heritage management of space exploration, focusing on orbital debris (eg Vanguard 1), terrestrial launch sites such as Woomera and Kourou, and tracking stations such as Orroral Valley in the Australian Capital Territory. She pioneered the concept of space as a cultural landscape, and is the only archaeologist studying orbital debris. As well as space archaeology, she is a specialist in stone tool analysis, and the Aboriginal use of bottle glass after European settlement.
She joined the Archaeology Department at Flinders University in 2005 to teach in the Graduate Program in Cultural Heritage Management. From 2012 - 2014, Alice took leave to return to the heritage consulting industry, working as a Senior Cultural Heritage Adviser with Wallis Heritage Consulting, and Ecology and Heritage Partners, Adelaide.
Alice is a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Space Industry Association of Australia, and the World Archaeological Congress Space Heritage Task Force. Her research on space exploration has been featured in National Geographic, The Monocle, Archaeology Magazine, Financial Review, and ABC Radio. She also publishes the blog Space Age Archaeology, which is archived by the National Library of Australia as a significant scientific publication. She is a member of the Editorial Board of The Journal of Toaster Studies.
Was going to space a good idea?
Dec 05, 2023 05:36 am UTC| Science
In 1963, six years after the first satellite was launched, editors from the Encyclopaedia Britannica posed a question to five eminent thinkers of the day: Has mans conquest of space increased or diminished his stature? The...
Best books of 2023: our experts share the books that have stayed with them
Dec 05, 2023 05:36 am UTC| Entertainment
We asked 20 of our regular contributors to nominate their favourite books of the year. Their choices were diverse, intriguing and sometimes surprising. Whether youre looking for something relaxing or stimulating,...
A rogue rocket is on course to crash into the Moon. It won't be the first
Feb 02, 2022 09:43 am UTC| Science
In a few weeks time, a rocket launched in 2015 is expected to crash into the Moon. The fast-moving piece of space junk is the upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket which hoisted the Deep Space Climate Observatory...
How to live in space: what we've learned from 20 years of the International Space Station
Nov 02, 2020 09:13 am UTC| Science
November 2 marks 20 years since the first residents arrived on the International Space Station (ISS). The orbiting habitat has been continuously occupied ever since. Twenty straight years of life in space makes the ISS...
Footprints on the Moon and cemeteries on Mars: interview with space archaeologist Alice Gorman
Jul 09, 2019 23:30 pm UTC| Insights & Views Science
Alice Gorman is a space archaeologist working on space junk in Earth orbit, deep space probes, and planetary landing sites. She explores what we can learn from these items and places as material objects, and also their...
Australian archaeologists dropped the term 'Stone Age' decades ago, and so should you
Aug 28, 2018 15:16 pm UTC| Insights & Views Life
Stone Age is a term often used to refer to early periods in human cultural evolution, when deliberately manufactured sharp stone flakes were the main cutting tool. But its also used to describe cultures that are seen as...
Trace fossils – the silence of Ediacara, the shadow of uranium.
Feb 03, 2017 07:43 am UTC| Science
As an archaeologist working in the remote areas around Woomera and the Nullarbor Plain, my understanding of South Australia was first informed by rocks and soil. This was a landscape of fossils and trace fossils the...