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Visual Apollo: a Graphical Exploration of Computer-Human Relationships Visual Apollo: A Graphical Exploration of Computer-Human Relationships The MIT Faculty has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters. Citation Loukissas, Yanni Alexander, and David Mindell. “Visual Apollo: A Graphical Exploration of Computer-Human Relationships.” Design Issues 30, no. 2 (April 2014): 4–16. As Published http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/DESI_a_00258 Publisher MIT Press Version Final published version Citable link http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88420 Terms of Use Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. Visual Apollo: A Graphical Exploration of Computer-Human Relationships Yanni Alexander Loukissas, David Mindell Introduction As NASA struggles with an uncertain national policy environ- 1 For more on the changing role of humans ment, it is seeking new combinations of human and robotic modes in spaceflight, see David Mindell, Digital of exploration. During the Apollo era, establishing human pres- Apollo: Human and Machine in Space- ence in space was an integral part of NASA’s work.1 More recently, flight (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2008). 2 See William Clancey, Working on Mars: the Mars Exploration Rover missions have demonstrated how rich Voyages of Scientific Discovery with the and successful remote exploration of a planetary surface can be.2 Mars Exploration Rovers (Cambridge: MIT Space exploration is one of many examples of technical operations Press, 2012); William Clancey, “Becoming conducted in extreme environments that are raising new questions a Rover,” in Simulation and Its Discon- about the relative importance of human and remote presence. tents, Sherry Turkle, ed. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2008), 107–27; and Zara Mirmalek, What does it mean to “be there?” “Solar Discrepancies: Mars Exploration Researchers, designers, and operators of situated robotics and the Curious Problem of Interplanetary and remote technologies are testing increasingly distributed config- Time” (doctoral thesis, University of Cali- urations of human–machine teams in technical operations, from fornia, San Diego, 2008). space exploration to surgery.3 However, with new forms of automa- 3 James Hollan, Edwin Hutchins, and David tion come unexpected changes in the social organization of work. If Kirsh, “Distributed Cognition: Toward a New Foundation for Human–Computer we are to understand the implications of increased automation for Interaction Research,” ACM Transactions control, responsibility, and safety, we need to look beyond the on Computer–Human Interaction 7, no. 2 methodological boundaries of traditional computer–human interac- (June 2000): 174–96. tion studies in both human factors and social studies of technology. 4 Raja Parasuraman, “A Model for Types Human factors studies tend to focus on individual operators and Levels of Human Interaction with 4 Automation,” IEEE Transactions on and quantitative representations. They emphasize workload, Systems, Man, and Cybernetics 30, no. 3 interface, and situational awareness but frequently overlook the (2000): 286–97; Thomas B. Sheridan, social organization of human–machine teams and the cultural pro- Humans and Automation: System Design duction of operator roles. Yet these factors can have profound and Research Issues (New York: Wiley- effects on the acceptance of new technologies, in both engineering Interscience, 2002). decisions and national policy making. Although social studies of 5 Bruno Latour, Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers Through technology address these broader socio-cultural issues, they often Society (Cambridge: Harvard University do so in formats that privilege qualitative data, incremental analy- Press, 1988); Gary Downey and Joseph sis, and linear explanations at the expense of considering technical Dumit, Cyborgs & Citadels: Anthropologi- and temporal measures of events.5 The study of distributed com- cal Interventions in Emerging Sciences puter–human relationships requires new methods that are capable and Technologies (Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press, 1997); of picking up on multi-channel interactions. In our collaborative Lucille Suchman, Human–Machine work, we are developing methods that bring together a combina- Reconfigurations: Plans and Situated tion of individual, social, quantitative, and qualitative data in rich, Actions (New York: Cambridge University graphical, real-time representations.6 Press, 2007). © 2014 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 4 DesignIssues: Volume 30, Number 2 Spring 2014 doi:10.1162/DESI_a_00258 Figure 1 A screenshot of the Apollo 11 visualization after it has played through. The original visualization is an interactive, color application with integrated audio. For a video-snapshot of the application go to: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/ suppl/10.1162/DESI_a_00258 © 2014 Yanni Alexander Loukissas 6 This paper elaborates on the contribu- tions and limitations of a stand-alone visualization of the first lunar landing, presented at CHI 2012 in the interactivity In this paper, we explain our use of data visualization as session. See Yanni Loukissas and an approach to the study of technologically mediated human David Mindell, “A Visual Display of roles and relationships. Although many quantitative researchers Sociotechnical Data,” in Proceedings make use of visual methods, they often forgo the difficult inte- of the 2012 ACM Annual Conference gration of qualitative details and socio-cultural context in the Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts process. In the domains of spaceflight and aviation in particular, (CHI 2012): 1103–6. Furthermore, it visualizations are used in accident investigations; however, they frames that project within a broader often focus on the machinery rather than on the network of research strategy: to develop a visual people involved.7 Meanwhile, qualitative researchers have, by language for bringing quantitative and and large, avoided visualization. So, sensor data and numerical qualitative data into view for interpretive studies of digital culture. calculations are graphed and charted, while human communica- 7 For an example of the use of animation tions and relationships remain unseen. Our approach is to develop in an airplane accident investigation, see a common format for looking at all these data to reveal enmeshed Colgan Air Flight 3407, National Trans- social and technical dynamics otherwise difficult to imagine portation Safety Board, Public Hearing, or communicate. May 12–14, 2009, www.ntsb.gov/news/ To start with a long view of human–machine relationships events/2009/buffalo_ny (accessed March 4, 2012). and make use of available data, our first visualization is from 8 Data include material from Mindell, the early history of spaceflight. Using the 1969 Apollo 11 lunar Digital Apollo, as well as from the landing as an example leverages previous work done in Digital following: NASA, Apollo 11 Descent and Apollo: Human and Machine in Spaceflight, as well as newly recov- Ascent Monitoring Photomaps, NASA ered downlink data, which reveals states of the Apollo guidance Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, TX (1969a); NASA, Apollo 11 Technical computer in sync with human interactions among the astronauts Debrief, NASA Manned Spacecraft in the lunar module and the command module, as well as person- Center, Houston, TX (1969b); NASA, nel in ground control.8 In what follows, we describe the Apollo 11 Apollo 11 On-Board Voice Transcription, visualization in detail and situate it within a history of influential NASA Manned Spacecraft Center, precedents. We also highlight the patterns of computer–human Houston, TX (1969c); NASA, Apollo 11 interaction that our visualization reveals and account for those Range Data, NASA Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, TX (1969d); NASA, patterns it overlooks. The benefits of data visualizations are Apollo 11 Technical Air-to-Ground many: Sources can be extensive, presentations can be more accessi- Voice Transcription, NASA Manned ble, and time can be introduced as an interactive variable. How- Spacecraft Center, Houston, TX (1969e); ever, the format also imposes constraints. Creating a legible and Spacecraft Films, Apollo 11: Men visualization of data requires leaving out much that could enrich on the Moon, Twentieth Century Fox Entertainment (2002). our understanding of an event but that might not graphically fit. In DesignIssues: Volume 30, Number 2 Spring 2014 5 the version of the Apollo 11 visualization presented here (see 9 For historical collections of information Figure 1), we chose to leave out physical interactions, historical visualizations, see Edward R. Tufte, The Visual Display of Quantitative and bibliographical information, and the virtual presence of the Information (Cheshire: Graphics Press, designers and developers of technologies involved. (Finding new 2001); Edward R. Tufte, Envisioning ways to incorporate these data will be taken up in future visualiza- Information (Cheshire: Graphics Press, tions.) Finally, in consideration of the benefits, absences, and limi- 1990); and Anthony Grafton and Daniel tations, we close with an explanation of necessary steps to make Rosenberg, Cartographies of Time: data visualization a viable, widespread format for the study of A History of the Timeline (Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press, 2010). computer–human relationships across domains. 10 Noteworthy examples include Stuart
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