Making the Invisible Visible: a History of the Spitzer Infrared Telescope Facility (1971–2003)/ by Renee M
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MAKING THE INVISIBLE A History of the Spitzer Infrared Telescope Facility (1971–2003) MONOGRAPHS IN AEROSPACE HISTORY, NO. 47 Renee M. Rottner MAKING THE INVISIBLE VISIBLE A History of the Spitzer Infrared Telescope Facility (1971–2003) MONOGRAPHS IN AEROSPACE HISTORY, NO. 47 Renee M. Rottner National Aeronautics and Space Administration Office of Communications NASA History Division Washington, DC 20546 NASA SP-2017-4547 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Rottner, Renee M., 1967– Title: Making the invisible visible: a history of the Spitzer Infrared Telescope Facility (1971–2003)/ by Renee M. Rottner. Other titles: History of the Spitzer Infrared Telescope Facility (1971–2003) Description: | Series: Monographs in aerospace history; #47 | Series: NASA SP; 2017-4547 | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: LCCN 2012013847 Subjects: LCSH: Spitzer Space Telescope (Spacecraft) | Infrared astronomy. | Orbiting astronomical observatories. | Space telescopes. Classification: LCC QB470 .R68 2012 | DDC 522/.2919—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2012013847 ON THE COVER Front: Giant star Zeta Ophiuchi and its effects on the surrounding dust clouds Back (top left to bottom right): Orion, the Whirlpool Galaxy, galaxy NGC 1292, RCW 49 nebula, the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, “yellow balls” in the W33 Star forming region, Helix Nebula, spiral galaxy NGC 2841 This publication is available as a free download at http://www.nasa.gov/ebooks. ISBN 9781626830363 90000 > 9 781626 830363 Contents v Acknowledgments vii List of Figures and Tables xi Introduction 1 CHAPTER 1 Ancient Views 13 CHAPTER 2 Getting Infrared Astronomy Off the Ground 29 CHAPTER 3 Making the Case for SIRTF 41 CHAPTER 4 SIRTF as a Shuttle-Based Infrared Telescope 61 CHAPTER 5 Selling It 83 CHAPTER 6 Out of Step 101 CHAPTER 7 From Orphan to Poster Child 117 CHAPTER 8 Constructing SIRTF 137 CHAPTER 9 Making the Invisible Visible 153 APPENDIX A Contributors to SIRTF 159 Bibliography 173 The NASA History Series 183 Index iii Acknowledgments ver a thousand people helped make the the Ames archives, especially Glenn Bugos and OSpace Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) April Gage, and the staff of the Headquarters a reality. Dozens more helped make this mono- Historical Reference Collection, especially Colin graph a reality. But one person stands out—nei- Fries and Jane Odom, all of whom helped me ther this monograph nor SIRTF would have been find—and make sense of—the mountains of possible without the unflagging support of Mike materials available on a major telescope project. Werner (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)—I dedicate Many thanks to the people who helped me this monograph to him. to reduce that mountain of material into a read- I would like to express my gratitude to able manuscript: Sara Lippincott (Pasadena), the people who gave of their time to be inter- editor and fact-checker extraordinaire; Julia Kim viewed for this history: Fred Witteborn (Ames) (New York University) for archive assistance; and imagined SIRTF before the technology existed, the anonymous peer reviewers who commented while Giovanni Fazio (Harvard-Smithsonian on early drafts. At the NASA History Division, Astrophysical Observatory), Jim Houck thanks to Chief Historian Bill Barry, former (Cornell), and George Rieke (Arizona) made that Chief Historian Steve Dick, and Steve Garber for technology real. shepherding this project through to completion. Bob Gehrz (Minnesota), Lawrence “Larry” To guide my efforts in crafting a history, Manning (Ames), and Charlie Pellerin and Harley I thank David DeVorkin (National Air and Thronson (NASA Headquarters) went above and Space Museum), Patrick McCray (University beyond, being incredibly generous with their of California [UC], Santa Barbara), and Robert time and contacts. Martin Harwit (Cornell) and Smith (University of Alberta) for writing other Dan Weedman (Penn State) provided extremely books that were not only valuable secondary useful historical perspective. source materials, but excellent models. And I Although many more people helped make thank my colleague, Kenji Klein (UC Irvine/ SIRTF possible, I’d like to thank a few who California State University, Long Beach), who agreed to be interviewed. From Ames: Michael showed me the possibilities of history as a tool Bicay, Craig McCreight, Ramsey Melugin, and for social science research. Lou Young. From JPL: Dave Gallagher, Bill Thanks are also due to a number of talented Irace, Johnny Kwok, Charles Lawrence, Larry professionals who helped bring this project from Simmons, and Bob Wilson. From Headquarters: manuscript to finished publication. Editors Nancy Boggess, Lawrence “Larry” Caroff, and Emily Dressler and Yvette Smith did excellent Frank Martin. From outside of NASA: Eric work preparing the manuscript for publica- Becklin (University of California, Los Angeles), tion. In the Communications Support Service Tim Kelly (Ball Aerospace), Marcia Rieke Center (CSSC), Mary Tonkinson, Lisa Jirousek, (Arizona), and Tom Soifer (Caltech). Chinenye Okparanta, and J. Andrew Cooke care- Monographs are not just written by those fully copyedited the text; Michele Ostovar did an listed as the author. I am grateful to the staff of expert job laying out the beautiful design and v vi Making the Invisible Visible creating the e-book version; Kristin Harley thor- (UC-Irvine/University of Maryland) for guiding oughly indexed our work; and printing specialist this project as a dissertation and monograph, as Tun Hla made sure the traditional hard copies well as Barbara Lawrence (UCLA) for introduc- were printed to exacting standards. Supervisors ing me to the SIRTF project team and Cristina Barbara Bullock and Maxine Aldred helped by Gibson (UC-Irvine/University of Western overseeing all of this CSSC production work. Australia) for introducing me to Barbara. Thank Last but certainly not least, I thank my aca- you so much for all your mentorship. demic colleagues, especially Christine Beckman List of Figures and Tables Figure 1.1. In Johannes Hevelius’s Firmamentum Figure 1.8. The spectroscopy experiment and Sobiescianum sive Uranographia (Gdansk, rocket (The Jesse Greenstein Papers, Caltech 1690), the figure of Orion is drawn as if look- Archives, Photo ID JLG50.9-1). ing from the heavens toward Earth. Thus, the Figure 1.9. Jesse L. Greenstein in front of the stars appear as mirror images of ground-based Palomar Observatory, 1965 (Leigh Wiener, observations. For more details, see Nick Kanas, Caltech Archives, Photo ID 10.12-13). Star Maps: History, Artistry, and Cartography, Figure 2.1. Dr. Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first 2nd ed. (New York: Springer, 2009). Chief of Astronomy, with a model of the Figure 1.2. The Constellation of Orion (Akira Orbiting Solar Observatory, c. 1963 (NASA Fujii, Space Telescope Science Institute for 63-OSO-1). NASA, Photo ID STScI-2006-01). Figure 2.2. Experiments on the OSO-1 mission, Figure 1.3. “Messier Object 42,” illustration of reproduced from J. Lindsay et al., Orbiting Orion Nebula published in an addition to Solar Observatory Satellite OSO I: The Project the first version of the Messier Catalog in Summary (Washington, DC: NASA SP-57, the Mémoires de l’Académie Royale for 1771 1965), p. 2, Fig. 1.2. (Paris, 1774), pp. 460–461. The image has Figure 2.3. Comparison of wavelengths in the been rotated; the original orientation can be electromagnetic spectrum, reproduced here viewed online at http://messier.seds.org/xtra/ from http://science.hq.nasa.gov/kids/imagers/ems/ history/m-m31_42.html (accessed 30 August ems_length_final.gif (accessed 30 August 2016). 2016); see also http://messier.seds.org/m/m042. Table 2.1. Coolants used in infrared astronomy html and http://messier.seds.org/. were compiled by the author. The values for Figure 1.4. “M42: The Orion Nebula (widefield),” each chemical are from P. J. Linstrom and W. 2004 (A. Block and R. Steinberg, National Mallard (2014). NIST Chemistry WebBook, Optical Astronomy Observatory, Photo ID NIST Standard Reference Database Number NOAO-m42steinberg). 69 (National Institute of Standards and Figure 1.5. “The Infrared Hunter,” 2006 (Tom Technology, Gaithersburg MD, 2014). Megeath, University of Toledo for NASA/ Available online at http://webbook.nist.gov/ JPL-Caltech/Spitzer Science Center, Photo chemistry/ (accessed 30 August 2016). ID ssc2006-16c). Figure 2.4. The telemetry van constructed by Figure 1.6. The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, Giovanni Fazio and Henry Helmken of the reproduced here from “Life Cycles of Stars” Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (EG-1997(09)-004-GSFC), available at and used during the 1960s at the National http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/educators/lifecycles/ Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, TX, Imagine2.pdf (accessed 30 August 2016). to record data from their high-altitude, Figure 1.7. Yerkes Observatory staff, May 1946. balloon-borne gamma-ray telescope. Fazio This photograph is reproduced by permission presented this photograph from his personal from the University of Chicago. files at the 37th Committee on Space Research vii viii Making the Invisible Visible Scientific Assembly in Montreal, Canada, drawing notes that helium gas vents, a remov- in a lecture titled “Flying High-Altitude able vacuum cover, and a ‘finder scope with Balloon-Borne Telescopes 50 Years Ago,” TV’ are not shown.” delivered on Tuesday, 15 July 2008, in session Figure 4.2. Specification of possible SIRTF design PSB1 (Scientific Ballooning: Recent Devel- and instrument suite, c. 1973, reproduced opments in Technology and Instrumentation: from the Final Report of the Space Shuttle Reminiscences). Payload Planning Working Groups, Volume 1: Table 2.2. Reproduced from U.S. Space Science Astronomy (Greenbelt, MD: NASA Goddard Board, Space Research: Directions for the Space Flight Center, 1973), p. 8. Future. Report of a Study by the Space Science Figure 4.3. Design for SIRTF as a Shuttle-attached Board, Woods Hole, MA, NRC Pub. 1403 payload, c. 1980, reproduced from Fred C. (Washington, DC: National Academy of Witteborn, Michael W. Werner, and Lou S. Sciences, 1966), pp. 346–347. Young, “Astrophysics Near-Term Program.