Machines.  We have been dependent on them throughout human history.  The more advanced we’ve become, the more advanced have our machines become.  In the latter half of the 20th century, we developed computers.   Now, we live much of our lives with, and through, computers and other machines (a computer is really nothing but a machine…an interesting one, for certain, but a machine).  Many people wonder if we really control the machines, or if the machines control us.  I admit to being a fan of the Terminator and Matrix franchises, but I’m not going to tell you if I have any hacking skills until I check with an attorney.

This is the main fragment of the Antikythera Mechanism, believed to be an ancient mechanical computer designed to calculate anastromical postions. This is from about 150-100 BCE. Image by French Wiki User Marsyas, copyrighted, all rights reserved.

Three things have advanced our technology through the last 60 years; greed, war, and space exploration.  “Greed” because if you designed something newer/cooler/better/faster than your competitors, you got rich.  “War” because if your perceived enemy — the dreaded “THEM” — gets ahead of you in technology they can control you.  “Space exploration” because it was there.  No philosophical arguments about greed or war from me (or you, please).  They are with us, and we have to deal with them.  Shall we just accept for today that competitiveness and aggression is in our nature, and move on to what’s really interesting?  I’m talking about space exploration.

This is the IBM AN/FSQ7 (well, part of it). It's ONE computer. Built to detect bombers, it was in operation until 1979. Image by Debbie Vaters

When we were first developing the technology to go into space, I admit I had some serious doubts.  Remember, we’re talking about the very beginning of the 60′s.  If you suppose life then was much as it is now, you are sadly mistaken.  Let me think:  Okay, the telephones weighed five pounds and were permanently affixed to one spot.  There was no caller ID, no answering machines, no call waiting, no texting.  You had a black and white television (maybe) and three channels.  No cable, no satellites, no pocket calculators, no cell phones, and no home computers.  And we’re going to the moon.  Okey dokey.

The Apollo 11 Lunar Module - Taken by Neil Armstrong (that's Buzz Aldrin you see) NASA

Obviously we did it.  And kept doing it.  It cost a lot in money and lives, and not just in the United States.  People all over the world have paid the price, at the time most notably in the USSR and the US.  We did it because we developed the machines to take us where our two feet couldn’t.  A space ship is nothing but a machine designed to move you from one place to another, much like your automobile.  Granted it’s a bit more complicated than this year’s Honda, but the concept is the same.  We can trace our most advanced vehicles, I’d say the space shuttles, way back to the simple cart.  As soon as you get the concept down, and build the first machine for it, you can keep growing and improving from there.

A reproduction of the Model T Ford - PhotoBucket Public Domain image

Operating a machine in space brings on new and exciting challenges, of course.  For one, if your vehicle fails you have a whole boat load of problems in space that you don’t have on the ground.  Beyond that, we’ve now developed machines to go where we can’t go yet.  Our rovers on Mars, the Voyagers, Cassini, Messenger… we have a whole pack of them roaming around out there.  Sure, we have some (very) limited control over them, but basically we’ve designed machines to go out where we can’t and collect specific information for us.

Artist conception of the Spirit Rover on Mars - NASA

That’s the beginning.  That’s the concept.  This is part one of Trudy’s post, and tomorrow we’ll talk about the machines we use in space exploration.