NASA Fellowships
Second HSS / NASA Fellowship in the History of Space Science Awarded
Janet Vertesi is a doctoral candidate at Cornell University’s Science & Technology Studies department. Her dissertation, “‘Seeing Like a Rover’: Images in Interaction on the Mars Exploration Rover Mission,” focuses on the role of digital images in the Mars Exploration Rover Mission based on over two years of immersive ethnographic fieldwork with the Rover team.
Under the HSS/NASA Fellowship my project, “The Social Life of Spacecraft: Unmanned Space Exploration In Historical Context,” expands the dissertation to explore the history of the human element of robotic space exploration since the 1970s. Arising from critical questions developed during the dissertation research, the work takes seriously the social organization and dynamic of the teams that animate rovers, landers and orbiters; the interactions between team members and their robots; and the politics governing these robots’ operation in the context of late-20th and early-21st century space science.
Mars Exploration Rover team members regularly describe their mission as possessing a distinct approach to consensus-building and internal organization which contributes to the Rovers’ overwhelming success. I intend to explore this statement and its implications for science and mission operations on remote planets with two complementary lines of research questions: first, how did this model of consensus-based work develop on the mission, and second, what other arrangements of humans and machines have characterized past unmanned NASA missions? I will begin my research at NASA Ames Research Center’s archive studying the development and early days of the Mars Rover mission. Further research will involve visits to NASA archival centers and oral history interviews with members of NASA robotic exploration missions such as Mariner, Viking, Voyager, and Galileo.
As a historian and sociologist of science, my work on contemporary space exploration continues my research interest in the visual cultures of science and the history of astronomy more generally. In addition to doctoral work at Cornell’s Science & Technology Studies Department, I hold an M.Phil in the History and Philosophy of Science from Cambridge University and a B.A. in Science Studies from UBC. My publications include studies of how the London Underground Map affects representation of and interaction with urban space, ongoing research in Human-Computer Interaction, and topics in seventeenth-century visual astronomy, such as Hevelius and Riccioli’s competing lunar maps and the use of images in Hevelius and Hooke’s debate over telescopic sights.
– by Janet Vertesi
First HSS / NASA Fellowship in the History of Space Science Final Report
The aim of my research project was to study the origin and development of planetary research in the European Space Agency (ESA). The fellowship was essentially used to support archival research at ESA’s Headquarters in Paris. The ESA archivist, Nathalie Tinjod, and the staff of the Directorate of Science provided me with support during my research work in Paris. Moreover, I enjoyed the important intellectual support from the ESA Coordinator of Solar System missions, Marcello Coradini.
I collected three kinds of unpublished documents which would become the documentary basis of my historical research. First, are the official documents related to the activity of ESA’s committees and working groups (minutes of meetings, information documents, recommendations, etc.). Second, are the unpublished documents related to the activity of the ESA Directorate of Science (correspondence, memos, monthly reports, minutes of meetings, etc.). Finally, there are the scientific and technical reports related to mission selection (mission proposals, assessment studies, feasibility studies, etc.).
My focus has been in the decision-making process which led to the selection of the various missions of interest within the framework of the fellowship project. This process is characterized by a bottom-to-top approach. The European space science community at large is the only source of ideas and concepts of missions. These are then discussed by expert groups and advisory committees, with the Agency providing support for assessment and feasibility studies. Due to the limited financial resources, only one or two missions are approved in each decision making run, and the final decision is the outcome of a highly competitive process involving many levels of interest: the various national and/or disciplinary sectors of the scientific community; the ESA technical staff; the space industry in the various member states; the national space policies; the relations with NASA and other space agencies; etc.
In particular, I collected documents related to the selection processes leading to the adoption in the ESA Scientific Programme of the missions Huygens (1982-1997), Mars Express (1990-1997), Venus Express (2001-2002), and Rosetta (1985-1993). Moreover, I made six recorded interviews with people who had key roles in the implementation of ESA planetary missions: Agustin Chicarro, project scientist of the Mars Express mission; Roger Bonnet, former Director of the ESA Scientific Programme; Marcello Fulchignoni, PI in the Huygens mission; Daniel Gautier, IDS in the Huygens mission; Marcello Coradini, coordinator of ESA solar system missions; and David Southwood, present Director of ESA Scientific Programme and former SSAC chairman.
I am now studying these documents, and draft papers on the history of the Cassini-Huygens and Mars Express missions have already been prepared. A new archival research phase is planned for the late summer.
– by Arturo Russo