CANBERRA—Agroup of archaeologists have explored the remains of Canberra's Orroral Valley NASA tracking station in an effort to preserve the site's heritage.

The group has been mapping the site since Saturday using electromagnetic induction techniques and differential GPS to find out exactly what remains below the ground.

Orroral Valley is located in the Namadgi National Park to Canberra's south and was operational from 1965-1985.

The station was one of a number of NASA stations in the ACT built to support early space exploration, including the Apollo program.

Dr Alice Gorman, archaeologist from Flinders University, and her research team says the site is an important part of Australia's scientific history.

"Australia has had a long involvement in international space exploration, and while not widely recognised, Orroral Valley was involved in many major NASA projects and played a critical role in Australia's early ventures into space," Dr Gorman said.

"Our project aims to not only map and document material culture of space exploration from the site, but to raise awareness of the site's heritage significance."

Chief Minister Jon Stanhope said the ACT government has provided a grant to help with the survey of Orroral Valley, which is currently nominated on the ACT Heritage Register.

"I am pleased the ACT government has been able to contribute to the understanding of this site's heritage through a $9000 grant to support the investigation," he said.