ORANGE, CALIFORNIA—According to a Gizmodo report, a new archaeological survey of the International Space Station (ISS), known as the Sampling Quadrangle Assemblages Research Experiment, or SQuARE, is underway. Researchers are examining photographs taken of six square survey areas onboard the ISS over a period of 60 days. The first stage of this study focused on two of these squares: a maintenance area, and a blank wall area near the latrine and the exercise equipment. The study suggests that during the study period, the maintenance area was mostly used for storage, “like the pegboard in your garage or garden shed, in this case made possible by the tremendous amount of Velcro in this location,” said archaeologist Justin Walsh of Chapman University. Meanwhile, one crew member was found to store toiletries in the blank wall area, because, as Walsh explained, the ISS does not have designated areas for people to keep personal items. “There are a few key takeaways,” Walsh concluded. “First, we showed that it’s possible to do good, productive archaeology in space, even if the investigators are on the ground. Second, we definitely showed that places in the space station are used in unexpected ways, which is a very human thing to do,” he said. Ultimately, Walsh and his colleagues want the study to offer insights into improving the design of a future space station. Read the original scholarly article about this research in PLOS ONE. For more on the burgeoning field of space archaeology, go to "Around the World: Space."
