Dr Space Junk vs The Universe

Shortlisted for the 2020 NSW Premier's Literary Awards Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-fiction

Winner of the 2019 John Mulvaney Book Prize by the Australian Archaeological Association.

Mark & Evette Moran Nib People's Choice Prize 2019

Shortlisted for the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature 2020

Shortlisted for the Mark and Evette Moran NIB Literary Award 2019

Shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards 2019: Nonfiction

Australian Book Review's Books of the Year 2019 (read more here)

Going boldly forth as a pioneer in the fledgling field of space archaeology, Dr Alice Gorman (aka Dr Space Junk) turns the common perception of archaeology as an exploration of the ancient on its head. Her captivating inquiry into the most modern and daring of technologies spanning some 60 years— a mere speck in cosmic terms—takes the reader on a journey which captures the relics of space forays and uncovers the cultural value of detritus all too readily dismissed as junk.

In this book, she takes a physical journey through the solar system and beyond, and a conceptual journey into human interactions with space. Her tools are artefacts, historical explorations, the occasional cocktail recipe, and the archaeologist's eye applied not only to the past, but the present and future as well.

Erudite and playful, Dr Space Junk reveals that space is not as empty as we might think. By looking up and studying space artefacts, we learn a lot about our own culture on earth. She makes us realise that objects from the past— the material culture produced by the Space Age and beyond—are significant to us now because they remind us of what we might want to hold onto in the future.

As charming as it is expert, as gripping as it is surprising, Dr Space Junk vs The Universe deftly threads together the cosmic and the personal, the stupendousness of space with the lived experience of human beings down here.' - Adam Roberts, author of Gradisil