Astronauts perform first archeology work on ISS

A crew aboard the International Space Station has carried out the first-ever archeological survey in space.

Instead of digging pits, astronauts were asked by a team of archaeologists to take daily pictures of six locations around the station for 60 days between January and March in 2022 as part of the ISS Archeological Project.

Led by Justin Walsh of Chapman University, California, researchers then analyzed the thousands of photos using archaeological techniques.

The goals of the study were to provide a better understanding of how humans adapt to a novel environment – one that features isolation, confinement, and gravity – and to demonstrate that social science can help improve life in space.

After analyzing the fieldwork, the archeologists found discrepancies between the intended and actual use of certain areas aboard the ISS.

For example, little to no maintenance was carried out in the equipment maintenance area, which was used for storage instead. Meanwhile, an undesignated area near locations for exercise and waste was mostly used for personal hygiene activities.

“The experiment is the first archaeology ever to happen off of the planet Earth,” the authors of the paper detailing the results of the study, published in peer-reviewed PLOS ONE journal, said.

“By applying a very traditional method for sampling a site to a completely new kind of archaeological context, we show how the ISS crew uses different areas of the space station in ways that diverge from designs and mission plans.

“Architects and planners of future space stations can learn valuable lessons from this work,” they said.

The findings could help inform the development of future space habitats, but also show how traditional archaeological techniques can be adapted to study remote or extreme habitats, according to the paper.

As part of the archeological work, researchers identified 5,438 “artifacts” on the ISS used for varied purposes, such as writing tools, Post-It notes, and an augmented reality headset.

The ISS crew involved in the experiment included four NASA astronauts, one German astronaut from the European Space Agency (ESA), and two Russian cosmonauts.