As I post this, we’re supposedly just hours away from the launch of NASA’s Artemis II mission around the Moon. So what better time to chat with space archaeologist Dr Alice Gorman aka Dr Space Junk and astrophysicist Rami Mandow?
In this episode we talk about that mission, but also flag some of the problems, including the various laws and treaties relating to the Moon. Also, cooking in space, drugged-up spiders, the recent total eclipse of the Moon, tightrope walking, and cockroaches.
This episode was recorded on 11 March 2026, so some of the topical references are slightly dated.
This podcast is available on Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox, Deezer, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, JioSaavn, Pocket Casts, Podcast Addict, Podchaser, Spotify, and Speaker.
You can also subscribe to the generic podcast feed.
Episode Links
-
Alice Gorman (born 1964) FSA is an Australian archaeologist, heritage consultant, and lecturer, who is best known for pioneering work in the field of space archaeology and her Space Age Archaeology blog.
-
Astronomer, driving The Dish? to study pulsars in my PhD. Also, founded SpaceAustralia.com. Also, love a bit of astrophotography. Also, do everything with my little mate, Max. Also, Ultra-Gay. He/Him.
-
A lunar eclipse, also called a blood moon, is an astronomical event that occurs when the Moon orbits through Earth's shadow.?
-
[4 March 2026] Here come my #LunarEclipse pics from earlier tonight. Imaged with the DSLR attached to the telescope (as my lens). These six are my best ones from the event.
-
Artemis II is a planned lunar flyby mission under the Artemis program, scheduled to launch on April 1, 2026 from the Kennedy Space Center.
-
[28 February 2026] Plans to return humans to the moon will come in later mission as agency grapples with delays and glitches.
-
Starliner's thrusters malfunctioned as it approached the ISS. After more than two months of investigation, NASA decided it was too risky to return Wilmore and Williams to Earth aboard Starliner.
-
[21 February 2026] Administrator Jared Isaacman said Starliner's troubles were due to poor leadership and decision-making at Boeing.
-
[1 October 2025] Globally, women represent less than 20% of the space sector, which has remained unchanged for more than 30 years. Women hold less than a quarter of management and executive roles in space-related careers, and make up less than 14% of all military roles, with a lower percentage likely in outer space roles.
-
Women's representation in the computing field has fallen from its peak of 38% in the mid-1980s. From 1993 to 1999, NSF's SESTAT reported that the percentage of women working as computer scientists declined slightly from 33.1% to 29.6%, while the absolute numbers increased from 170,500 to 185,000. Additionally, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Catalyst in 2006 indicated that women make up 29% of the computer science field.
-
[10 March 2026] An obscure lunar region called Rimae Bode is emerging as a high-priority landing site for China’s first crewed moon mission.
-
As of 2024, the People's Republic of China has sent three women to space: Liu Yang, Wang Yaping and Wang Haoze all of whom are taikonauts in the People's Liberation Army Astronaut Corps (PLAAC).
-
In lunar astronomy, libration is the cyclic variation in the apparent position of the Moon that is perceived by observers on the Earth and caused by changes between the orbital and rotational planes of the moon. It causes an observer to see slightly different hemispheres of the surface at different times.
-
[9 March 2026] Based on this information, we propose four prospective landing sites in the traversable areas, which provide a range of diverse geological samples, including volcanic debris, mare basalts, Copernicus crater ejecta and high-Th materials.
-
[1 August 1993] During their historic extravehicular activity, the Apollo 11 crew planted the flag of the United States on the lunar surface. This flag-raising was strictly a symbolic activity, as the United Nations Treaty on Outer Space precluded any territorial claim. Nevertheless, there were domestic and international debates over the appropriateness of the event.
-
The Pioneer plaques are a pair of gold-anodized aluminum plaques that were placed on board the 1972 Pioneer 10 and 1973 Pioneer 11 spacecraft, featuring a pictorial message, in case either Pioneer 10 or 11 is intercepted by intelligent extraterrestrial life. The plaques show the nude figures of a human male and female along with several symbols that are designed to provide information about the origin of the spacecraft.
-
The Voyager Golden Records are two phonograph records that were included aboard both Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977. The records contain sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth, and are intended for any intelligent extraterrestrial life form who may find them. The records are a sort of time capsule.
-
The goals of the GEGSLA are to prepare materials (described more fully below) that will be submitted to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Use of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS), where the MVA has permanent observer status, to support the Committee’s discussions and deliberations on critical issues surrounding increased lunar activity.
-
The World Heritage Convention, formally the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, is an international treaty signed on 23 November 1972, which created the World Heritage Sites, with the primary goals of nature conservation and the preservation and security of cultural properties.
-
The Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, better known as the Moon Treaty or Moon Agreement, is a multilateral treaty that turns jurisdiction of all celestial bodies (including the orbits around such bodies) over to the participant countries. Thus, all activities would conform to international law, including the United Nations Charter.
-
The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) is an office of the U.N. Secretariat that promotes and facilitates peaceful international cooperation in outer space. It works to establish or strengthen the legal and regulatory frameworks for space activities, and assists developing countries in using space science and technology for sustainable socioeconomic development.
-
The United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) is a United Nations committee whose main task is to review and foster international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space, as well as to consider legal issues arising from the exploration of outer space.
-
Steven Freeland is Emeritus Professor of International Law at Western Sydney University.
-
Zardoz is a 1974 science fantasy film written, produced, and directed by John Boorman and starring Sean Connery and Charlotte Rampling. It depicts a post-apocalyptic world where barbarians (the Brutals) worship the stone idol Zardoz while growing food for a hidden elite, the Eternals. The Brutal Zed, driven by curiosity about Zardoz, instigates a confrontation between the two peoples.
-
Genesis I was an experimental space habitat designed and built by the private American firm Bigelow Aerospace and launched in 2006... Bigelow also placed a life sciences experiment on board, which contained four Madagascar hissing cockroaches (Gromphadorhina portentosa) and approximately 20 so-called Mexican jumping beans, which are seeds containing the live larva of the moth Cydia saltitans.
-
Life. The Universe. Everything. The human race has always revealed an insatiable hunger to search "to infinity and beyond". Astronomers Stuart Lowe (@slowe) and Chris North use cutting-edge infographics to illuminate the most amazing places and objects that modern science has laid bare. Featuring innovative, inspirational and original designs, the book delves into a truly international subject and will appeal to stargazers and space enthusiasts of all ages.
-
[1 Nay 2023] In the vast expanse of space exploration, one wouldn't expect NASA, dedicated to unraveling the mysteries of the cosmos, to dabble in the peculiar world of spider behavior and drugs. Yet, once upon a time, the scientists at NASA embarked on an unconventional experiment: getting spiders high on a cocktail of mind-altering substances.
-
[9 May 2015] ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti shows how to use the most unglamorous but often asked-about part of living on the International Space Station: the toilet. A fan creates suction to avoid smells and floating waste. Solid waste is stored and put in cargo ferries to burn up when the spacecraft leaves the Space Station. The astronaut urine is recycled – into drinking water.
-
From January 28 to February 4, 2023, a high-altitude balloon originating from China flew across North American airspace, including Alaska, western Canada, and the contiguous United States. On February 4, the U.S. Air Force shot down the balloon over U.S. territorial waters off the coast of South Carolina near the city of Myrtle Beach.
-
[5 June 2015] ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti is currently living on board the International Space Station for her long duration mission Futura. Food is an important item in space, also on the psychological side; that's why astronauts are allowed a certain quantity of the so-called "bonus food" of their choice that reminds them of their home cooking tastes. We asked Samantha to show us how she manages to cook one of her bonus food recipes in microgravity: whole red rice with peas and chicken turmeric.
-
Sous vide (/su? ?vi?d/; French for 'under vacuum'), also known as low-temperature, long-time (LTLT) cooking, is a method of cooking invented by the French chef Georges Pralus in 1974, in which food is placed in a plastic pouch or a glass jar and cooked in a water bath for longer than usual cooking times (usually one to seven hours, and more than three days in some cases) at a precisely regulated temperature.
-
[23 March 2017] So what’s boiling water like aboard the International Space Station (ISS)? As it turns out, due to a serious quirk of physics, it’s actually quite difficult, as astronauts have discovered over the past few years.
-
[9 March 2026] At 18:55 CET on Sunday, 8 March, a very bright fireball streaked across the skies of Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, glowing for around six seconds before fragmenting. ??
-
[19 December 2025] SA Museum is confident the damage to a car driving through the state's mid north in October was not caused by a meteorite. The large object that exploded on the windscreen remains a mystery.
If the links aren’t showing up, try here.
Thank you, Media Freedom Citizenry
The 9pm Edict is supported by the generosity of its listeners. Right now I’m hoping you’ll support not only the podcasts but also The 9pm Stilgherrian’s Dramatic Decamp to Campsie, to help cover the costs of me moving back to Sydney after 15 years in the Blue Mountains.
For this episode, though, it’s thanks yet again to everyone who supported The 9pm Summer Series 2025 crowdfunding campaign.
CONVERSATION TOPICS: None this time.
THREE TRIGGER WORDS: Bernard Walsh, Garth Kidd, Paul Williams, Peter Lieverdink, Peter Wickins, and one person who chooses to remain anonymous.
WE WILL, WE WILL JUDGE YOU, part of Another Untitled Music Podcast: Joanna Forbes, Martin English, and one person who chooses to remain anonymous.
ONE TRIGGER WORD: Andrew Best, Drew Mayo, Errol Cavit, Frank Filippone, Jim Campbell, Jordan Wightman, Karl Sinclair, Kym Yeap, Mark Newton, Michael, Michael again, Miriam Faye, Nicole Coombe, Oliver Townshend, Peter Blakeley, Ric Hayman, Stephen Collins, Steve Sainsbury, and two people who choose to remain anonymous.
RECOMMEND A SONG TO US, another part of Another Untitled Music Podcast: Briala Bowmer, Kimberley Heitman, Mindy Johnson, and Rhydwyn.
PERSONALISED VIDEO MESSAGE: None of these this time either.
PERSONALISED AUDIO MESSAGE: Matthew Taylor, and one person who chooses to remain anonymous.
FOOT SOLDIERS FOR MEDIA FREEDOM who gave a SLIGHTLY LESS BASIC TIP: Chris Scobell, Craig Askings, deejbah, Hammy Goonan, James Henstridge, Leigh Costin, Lindsay, Opheli8, and one person who chooses to remain anonymous.
MEDIA FREEDOM CITIZENS who contributed a BASIC TIP: None of these either, which is curious.
And another ten people who chose to have no reward at all, even though some of them were the most generous of all. Thank you all so much. You know who you are.
Series Credits
- The 9pm Edict theme by mansardian via The Freesound Project.
- Edict fanfare by neonaeon, via The Freesound Project.
- Elephant Stamp theme by Joshua Mehlman.