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Fifty Years in Space Fifty Years in Space By Douglas L. Smith An international Who’s Who of aerospace roughly the length of the auditorium, and luminaries packed Caltech’s Beckman Audi- Robert Goddard’s first rocket in 1926 torium last September to celebrate “50 Years reached about 41 feet, or approximately to in Space.” The conference was organized the ceiling. It took another 30-plus years by Ares Rosakis, the von Kármán Professor to reach orbit, with the Soviet Union’s of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineer- October 4, 1957, launch of Sputnik ing and director of the Graduate Aero- as Earth’s first artificial satellite propel- nautical Laboratories at the California ling the world into the Space Age and Institute of Technology (GALCIT), and the United States into the Space Race. Dwight Streit, vice president, electronics Numerous speakers paid homage to the technology, for Northrop Grumman Space Cold War as a powerful motivator. Open- Technology, which cosponsored the event ing keynoter Ronald with GALCIT and the Jet Propulsion Labora- Sugar, chairman and tory, which Caltech administers for NASA. The CEO of Northrop heavy hitters from all of Earth’s spacefaring nations Grumman, said that were invited, says Rosakis, but the representatives “an international space from China and Russia were no-shows. According to movement based on Rosakis, the conference’s three chairs—Caltech presi- cooperation and the dent Jean-Lou Chameau, JPL director Charles Elachi quest for knowledge (MS ’69, PhD ’71), and Northrop Grumman Space emerged from one Technology president Alexis Livanos (BS ’70, MS ’73, originally based on PhD ’75)—represented the triumvirate of academia, geopolitical struggle national laboratories, and industry that has woven and military competi- the exploration and use of space into the fabric of tion.” Joanne Maguire, our society. The speakers, who were drawn from all executive vice president three branches of the triumvirate, celebrated past of Lockheed Martin accomplishments, reflected on our current situation, Space Systems, was and speculated on the future of humanity’s endeavors blunter. “One wonders in orbit and beyond. Herewith are some of their if the U.S. would have thoughts, culled from a day and a half of presentations done anything in space and panel discussions and reassembled in narrative in the 1960s if it were form. Streaming video of all the presentations, along not for the Cold War.” with event photos and speaker biographies, can be Infrared–NASA/JPL-Caltech Optical–NASA/STScI; X-ray–NASA/CXC/SAO; credit: Image DARPA, the found at http://galcit.caltech.edu/space50. Defense Advanced Supernova remnant Cassiopeia A through the eyes of three Research Projects Agency, was founded of NASA’s Great Observatories. The outer shell of cold dust WHERE WE’VE BEEN in 1958 along with seen in the infrared by the Spitzer Space Telescope is col- NASA, both in The journey into space began humbly enough, ored red, the filaments of warm gas visible to the Hubble response to Sputnik. as astronaut Ronald Sega, retired undersecretary Space Telescope are yellow, and the superheated shock wave That 84-kilogram of the U.S. Air Force, pointed out. The Wright sphere, clearly visible brothers’ first flight in 1903 was about 120 feet, seen by the Chandra X-ray Observatory is green and blue. every 98 minutes as 12 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE NO . 1 2 0 0 8 A false-color mosaic of it passed overhead, was a great shock to America’s Saturn’s far side from the presumption of superiority in all things scientific Cassini spacecraft. The and technical. David Whelan, chief scientist for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems and former rings are backlit, so the director of DARPA’s tactical technology office, said most opaque parts appear DARPA’s charter was to “prevent technological darkest.��Thermal radia- surprise,” and described how it functions as part tion from Saturn’s interior think tank and part piggy bank. DARPA foresaw the military usefulness of space for photoreconnais- lights up the night in red. sance, weather forecasting, telecommunications, Thick clouds deep in the and GPS. All of these, of course, have now found atmosphere block some civilian uses as well, and the synergy between military and civilian space efforts was a constant of it, appearing as dark theme of the conference. The agency started writ- Eugene Shoemaker points with his rock hammer as he streaks, spots, and globe- ing checks immediately, said Whelan, with ARPA describes the geology of Meteor Crater’s rim ejecta to encircling bands. Saturn’s (the word “Defense” wasn’t added to its name until astronaut trainees during a field trip in May 1967. sunlit side appears green- 1972) Order #1 going to Wernher von Braun to develop the first American spacecraft, the Explorer ish-yellow. 1. Later ARPA funding orders were for the devel- of the University of Texas had become Apollo’s opment of the Mercury and Gemini space capsules field-geology principal investigators. They planned that took Americans into orbit, and the Saturn mission-specific training trips, scouted appropriate rocket motors that took us to the moon. locations, and, perhaps most importantly, recruited On May 25, 1961, President Kennedy addressed mentors. These included, besides the three PIs, a joint session of Congress after the Russians had Caltech geology professors Lee Silver (PhD ’55) beaten the Americans once again by putting cos- and Robert Sharp (BS ’34, MS ’35), who “provided monaut Yuri Gagarin in orbit on April 12. Ken- infectious emphasis on ‘belly geology,’” and Rich- nedy challenged the nation to put a man on the ard Jahns (BS ’35, PhD ’43), a recent defector to moon by the end of the decade. NASA hopped to Stanford from the Caltech geology faculty by way it, and in 1962, Eugene Shoemaker (BS ’47, MS of Penn State. ’48) of the U.S. Geological Survey helped NASA Various speakers described the robotic post-Apol- develop a plan for lunar exploration. In January lo exploration of the solar system and our growing 1963 he began field-training astronauts, leading the understanding of the evolution of the cosmos and Gemini group—which included future moon- our place in it through a panoply of astronomical walkers Neil Armstrong, Pete Conrad, and John missions, including NASA’s Great Observatories. Young—on a two-day tour of Arizona’s Meteor This fleet of four space telescopes has covered the Crater and nearby volcanic features, said Apollo electromagnetic spectrum from ultra-energetic 17 astronaut Harrison “Jack” Schmitt (BS ’57). gamma rays down to the coldest of infrared radia- “Shoemaker was one of the best and most infec- tion. (The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory tious of teachers. I know that this trip impressed was de-orbited in 2000; its successor, the Gamma- my future colleagues.” By 1967, “science training reached a new NASA/Eugene Cernan NASA/Eugene level of sophistica- tion,” with spacesuited Harrison Schmitt, Apollo astronaut-geologists 17’s lunar-module pilot using the equipment and the second-to-last they would actually be carrying, operat- man to set foot on the ing under realistic moon, wields an adjustable time constraints, and sampling scoop. Apollo communicating their 17 brought back 109 observations by radio to scientists at mission kilograms of lunar material control. Shoemaker, from the Taurus-Littrow USGS colleague region in December 1972. Gordon Swann, and William Muehlberger (BS ’49, PhD ’54) Three of NASA’s four Great Observatories are still in service. 2 0 0 8 ENGINEERING & SCIENCE NO . 1 13 ray Large Area Space Telescope, is slated for launch administrator, a congressman asked him what is a this May.) JPL’s Michael Werner, the project scien- very legitimate question if you don’t understand tist for the infrared Spitzer Space Telescope, called anything about space: ‘Why do we need weather the ensemble “a programmatic stroke of genius,” as satellites when we have the Weather Channel?’” they were built in sequence, maintaining a steady Ballhaus called space a utility. “It’s just like power stream of funding from year to year and from to your house. People don’t understand how the mission to mission, as opposed to the more usual power got there, but they sure notice if it doesn’t approach of starting with a clean slate annually and get there. Last week we completely changed having to rejustify the budget. the ground system on GPS, and you didn’t read about it in the news, because it worked smoothly.” “The cost per year of Cassini, all of that three billion dollars amortized over Just like the water and electric companies, space utilities turn a profit. According to Boeing’s the life of the mission, is about what Americans spend annually on lip balm.” Whelan, “The U.S. government’s cost to pay for and manage GPS for the country is actually offset by the profit to the tax base due to all the revenues This assortment of intellectual riches led Neil from people buying cars with GPS units and so deGrasse Tyson, director of New York City’s forth. So it’s actually revenue-positive to the Trea- Hayden Planetarium, to comment that “the highest sury.” To which Maguire replied, “Try explaining form of compliment is [that] people see NASA’s that to Congress.” achievements and they think it’s 20 percent of the Several speakers ticked off space’s many uses: federal budget. They complain about how much crop management, traffic management, disaster we’re spending on NASA to generate what they management, land-use planning, environmental see, and they have no idea how little it is.” For monitoring, antiterrorism. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, example,
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