NASA goes digital

The space race was on. It was the 1950’s and the United States and Russia were neck-and-neck in a race to see who would get into space first. The Russians won with the first satellite ‘Sputnik’ in October of 1957. Both the Russians and the United States understood what might be possible with a camera aboard a satellite. Having an eye in the sky to watch the enemy would give huge superiority to the owner of such technology. NASA also needed to map the surface of the moon for the planned moon landings. There was one big problem. With existing photographic technology, the film from the camera would have to be brought back to earth for development, or it would have to be developed on board the space craft and then the final photographs would have to be brought back. Neither option was acceptable. NASA knew they needed a new technology. In the 1960’s they went digital. This technological advancement gave them the ability to electronically send pictures of the moon’s surface back to earth and record them.

Since the first digital pictures of the moon were beamed back to earth, NASA has been on the digital bandwagon in a major way. Digital imagery of both earth and space have astounded mankind ever since.

Spy satellites have been in use since the early 1960’s. They keep an eye on hot spots around the globe allowing analysts to locate enemy movements from the safety of their homeland. During the early days of this technology, there were many in opposition to the idea. This made the implementation of the technology somewhat difficult but it didn’t stop it. Today, satellite imagery and computer technology are being combined to provide amazing results such as identification of a person based on their shadow. With this technology, the government expects to be able to identify and track known criminals and terrorists.

Other uses of the digital satellite photography have helped us better understand our world. Declassified spy satellite photos have been compared to previous aerial photographs and have shown changes in our environment. Now, we can track environmental changes from year to year which allows us to monitor our environmental management.

Of course, most notable from NASA are the advancements in technology that allow us to peer into the skies and view distant and never before seen planets and solar systems. The Earth’s atmosphere causes many problems for astronomers. They cannot get a clear unobstructed view of space. With NASA’s satellite technology, telescope satellites have been launched into orbit where they can peek into space from beyond the Earth’s atmosphere and digitally transmit pictures back to earth instantly. Arguably, the most well known of these is the Hubble telescope. Congress approved the Hubble telescope plans in 1977, but the satellite didn’t launch into orbit until 1990. But immediately there were problems. The giant mirror in the telescope was not made correctly and all the pictures it sent back were blurry. It was finally repaired during a space shuttle mission in 1993. The photographs Hubble has sent back since then have been stunning. In May of this year, NASA replaced the old camera in Hubble with a new ‘Wide Field Camera 3’ (WFC3). This new camera is expected to be more powerful and be able to probe deeper into the universe. It is a 900 pound unit about the size of a baby grand piano. Much more technical information about this camera can be obtained here.

The successor to the Hubble is the Webb Telescope. This new telescope will have more advanced cameras and will be placed into orbit far beyond the moon, allowing it an unobstructed view of the heavens. This satellite is not set to be placed into orbit until sometime in 2013.