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Dr Space Junk vs The Universe: Archaeology and the Future

2020 - Shortlisted

Shortlisted

Judges' comments

What is space archaeology? In Dr Space Junk vs The Universe, Alice Gorman provides an engrossing answer to this question as she narrates her path to becoming a practising space archaeologist. Gorman’s enthusiasm for space is multidisciplinary and she draws effortlessly on astrophysics, Indigenous cosmology, pop culture and political history to make space science accessible.

Originality of conception and execution mark this book. Gorman is a clever stylist. Her writing is by turns funny, polemical and scholarly – and often surprising in the imaginative leaps the author is willing to take. Dr Space Junk vs The Universe is a timely book. Gorman looks back to the Space Race, but also to the future, raising important questions about space exploration and litter in the century ahead.