Abstract
Space exploration unquestionably has had a major and valuable impact on a range of scientific disciplines. Equipped with highly sensitive instruments, probes have discovered new bodies and phenomena and have contributed to our knowledge of the atmospheres, ionospheres, magnetospheres, and geologies of solar-system objects. Crucial to achieving these scientific advancements has been the careful placement of spacecraft-borne instruments in close proximity to their subjects. In addition, flights into the solar system made possible by the creation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958 engendered a concomitant shift in long-standing funding patterns, a shift that was especially visible in the field of astronomy.1
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Joseph N. Tatarewicz, Space Technology and Planetary Astronomy (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990).
William G. Melbourne, J. Derral Mulholland, William L. Sjogren, and Francis M. Sturms, Jr., Constants and Related Information for Astrodynamic Calculations, 1968, Technical Report 32–1306 (Pasadena: JPL, July 15, 1968), p. 33; Samuel Herrick, “Astronomical and ‘Astrodynamical’ Values of Constants and Ephemeral Data,” in Jean Kovalevsky, ed., The System of Astronomical Constants (Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1965), pp. 105–108; John D. Anderson, Determination of the Masses of the Moon and Venus and the Astronomical Unit from Radio Tracking Data of the Mariner II Spacecraft, TR 32–816 (Pasadena: JPL, July 1, 1967), pp. 6–7.
Steven J. Dick, Sky and Ocean Joined: The U.S. Naval Observatory 1830–2000 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 15–16. On the early history of navigation, see E. G. R. Taylor, The Haven-Finding Art: The History of Navigation from Odysseus to Captain Cook (New York: Abelard-Schuman, 1957); and Charles H. Cotter, A History of Nautical Astronomy (London: Hollis & Carter, 1968). On the instruments, see J. A. Bennett, The Divided Circle: A History of Instruments for Astronomy, Navigation, and Surveying (Oxford: Phaidon, Christie’s, 1987). For the history of longitude and the chronometer, see Dava Sobel, Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time (New York: Walker, 1995).
For the history of the Greenwich Royal Observatory, see Greenwich Observatory... the Story of Britain’s Oldest Scientific Institution, the Royal Observatory at Greenwich and Herstmonceux, 1675–1975, 3 vols. (London: Taylor & Francis, 1975). On the Naval Observatory, see Dick, Sky and Ocean Joined, pp. 28–70, 119, 121–22. The evolution of national almanacs is taken up by P. Kenneth Seidelmann, Paul M. Janiczek, and Ralph F. Haupt, “The Almanacs—Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow,” Navigation: Journal of the Institute of Navigation 24 (1976–1977): 303–12.
Paul Herget, interview by David DeVorkin, Cincinnati Observatory, April 19–20, 1977, conducted for the American Institute of Physics, Center for History of Physics, transcript, James Melville Gilliss Library, US Naval Observatory, Washington, DC (hereafter, Gilliss Library), pp. 16, 64; Paul Herget, “Numerical Integration with Punched Cards,” Astronomical Journal 52 (1946): 115–17; LeRoy E. Doggett and Steven J. Dick, Oral History Interview with Raynor L. Duncombe and Julena S. Duncombe: on June 18, 1983 and on Jan. 11, 1988 (Washington, DC: US Naval Observatory, 1988), pp. 5–6; Dick, Sky and Ocean Joined, pp. 517–20.
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Jean Ford Brennan, The IBM Watson Laboratory at Columbia University: A History (New York: IBM, 1970), pp. 3–4, 7–8; Dorritt Hoffleit, Astronomy at Yale, 1701–1968 (New Haven: Yale University, 1992), p. 197.
Wallace J. Eckert, “Air Almanacs,” Sky and Telescope 4 (1944): 4–8; Brennan, The IBM Watson Laboratory at Columbia University, p. 10; Osterbrock and Seidelmann, “Paul Herget,” pp. 63, 65–66; Kaj Strand, interview by David DeVorkin and Steven Dick, December 8, 1983, and January 3, 1984, Space Astronomy Oral History Project, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Museum, transcript, Gilliss Library, pp. 53–54; Herget, interview, p. 16; Herget to Prof. Jan Shilt, January 20, 1940, “National Research Fellowship,” drawer 2, Paul Herget Papers, Gilliss Library (hereafter, Herget Papers); Dick, Sky and Ocean Joined, pp. 521–22. Wallace Eckert and Ralph Haupt, “The Printing of Mathematical Tables,” Mathematical Tables and Aids to Computation 2 (January 1947): 187–202, traces the evolution of the production of the American Air Almanac during the war years. Herget’s dissertation was: “The Determination of Orbits,” PhD thesis, University of Cincinnati, 1935. In the same year, he published “The Determination of Orbits,” Astronomical Journal 44 (1935): 153–61, based on the dissertation and reprinted as “A Method for Determining Preliminary Orbits Adopted to Machine Computation” Publications of the Cincinnati Observatory no. 21 (Cincinnati: Cincinnati Observatory, 1936).
Raynor and Julena Duncombe, interview, pp. 18, 32–34. On Vanguard, see Constance McLaughlin Green and Milton Lomask, Vanguard: A History (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1971).
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Arthur C. Clarke, Interplanetary Flight: An Introduction to Astronautics (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1951), p. 124.
Peter Broughton, “The First Predicted Return of Comet Halley,” Journal for the History of Astronomy 16 (1985): 123–33. See also Curtis Wilson, “Clairaut’s Calculation of the 18th-Century Return of Halley’s Comet,” Journal for the History of Astronomy 24 (1993): 1–15.
Ronald E. Doel, Solar System Astronomy in America: Communities, Patronage, and Interdisciplinary Science, 1920–1960 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 16, 123–25.
Paul Herget, “Armin Otto Leuschner,” National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs 49 (1978): 132; Russell T. Crawford, Armin O. Leuschner, and Gerald Merton, Determination of Orbits of Comets and Asteroids (New York: McGraw-Hill 1930); Maud Worcester Makemson, “Russell Tracy Crawford, 1876–1958,” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 71, 423 (December 1959): 503.
Samuel Herrick, The Laplacian and Gaussian Orbit Methods (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1940); Aller, Barnes, and Abell, “Samuel Herrick,” pp. 58–59.
John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, “Fellows Whose Last Names Begin With H,” http://www.gf.org/hfellow.html (accessed October 29, 2007); Samuel Herrick, Tables for Rockets and Comet Orbits (Washington: National Bureau of Standards, 1953), pp. esp. v and xxii.
William R. Corliss, A History of the Deep Space Network (Washington: NASA, 1976), pp. 9–10; Nicholas A. Renzetti, “DSIF in the Ranger Project,” in The Ranger Program, TR 32–141 (Pasadena: JPL, September 1961), p. 37; JPL, Space Programs Summary 37–10, Volume I, for the Period May 1, 1961, to July 1, 1961 (Pasadena: JPL, August 1, 1961), p. 64; “Mark I Ranging Subsystem,” 13 in Space Programs Summary 37–20, Vol. III, The Deep Space Network, for the Period January 1 to February 28, 1963 (Pasadena: JPL, March 31, 1963).
John E. Ekelund, “History of the ODP at JPL,” date unknown, page 2, manuscript, copy provided to author, states that Holdridge created the trajectory program “almost single-handedly.” Thomas W. Hamilton, William L. Sjogren, William E. Kirhofer, Joseph P. Fearey, and Dan L. Cain, The Ranger 4 Flight Path and its Determination from Tracking Data, TR 32–345 (Pasadena: JPL, September 15, 1962), p. 82, supports that statement declaring that the program was “developed almost completely” by Holdridge.
Ekelund, “History of the ODP at JPL,” pp. 2–3; Melba W. Nead, “Reminiscences of California Institute of Technology Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory, GALCIT No. 1 later JPL,” memorandum from Nead to Kyky Chapman, November 5, 1991, 4, HC 16–7, JPL History Collection, JPL Archives, Pasadena, California. Lorell and Carr were studying the combustion of ethanol and hydrazine. See Jack Lorell and Henry Wise, “Steady-State Burning of a Liquid Droplet: I. Monopropellant Flame” Journal of Chemical Physics 23 (1955): 1928–32; and Jack Lorell, Henry Wise, and Russell E. Carr “Steady-State Burning of a Liquid Droplet: II. Bipropellant Flame,” Journal of Chemical Physics 25 (1956): 325–31.
Nicholas A. Renzetti, Joseph P. Fearey, Justin R. Hall, and B. J. Ostermier, Radio Tracking Techniques and Performance of the United States Deep Space Instrumentation Facility, TR 32–87 (Pasadena: JPL, March 24, 1961), pp. 10–12; Carr and Hudson, Tracking and Orbit Determination Program of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Technical Report 32–7 (Pasadena: JPL, February 22, 1960), pp. 26, 43; Jack Lorell, Russell E. Carr, and R. Henry Hudson, The Jet Propulsion Laboratory Lunar-Probe Tracking and Orbit-Determination Program, Technical Release No. 34–16 (Pasadena: JPL, March 10, 1960), pp. 4, 5–6.
Renzetti, Fearey, Hall, and Ostermier, Radio Tracking Techniques, pp. 12–13; Lorell, Carr, and Hudson, The Jet Propulsion Laboratory Lunar-Probe Tracking and Orbit-Determination Program, pp. 4, 5; R. Henry Hudson, Subtabulated Lunar and Planetary Ephemerides, TR 34–239 (Pasadena: JPL, November 2, 1960), p. 1; Douglas B. Holdridge, Space Trajectories Program for the IBM 7090 Computer, TR 32–223 (Pasadena: JPL, September 1, 1962), p. 2.
Benjamin S. Yaplee, Stephen H. Knowles, Allan Shapiro, K. J. Craig, and Dirk Brouwer, “The Mean Distance to the Moon as Determined by Radar,” in Kovalevsky, ed., The System of Astronomical Constants, p. 82; The Mean Distance to the Moon as Determined by Radar, NRL Report 6134 (Washington: Naval Research Laboratory, 1964); Clarke, “Earth Radius/Kilometer Conversion Factor for the Lunar Ephemeris,” AlAA Journal 2, 2 (February 1964): 363; William L. Sjogren, David W. Curkendall, Thomas W. Hamilton, William Kirhofer, Anthony Liu, Donald W. Trask, Robert A. Winneberger, and Wilber R. Wollenhaupt, The Ranger VI Flight Path and its Determination from Tracking Data, TR 32–605 (Pasadena: JPL, December 15, 1964), p. 58.
Michael Ash, Irwin Shapiro, and William B. Smith, “Astronomical Constants and Planetary Ephemerides Deduced from Radar and Optical Observations,” The Astronomical Journal 72 (1967): 338–50.
Andrew J. Butrica, To See the Unseen: A History of Planetary Radar Astronomy, NASA SP-4218 (Washington: NASA, 1996), 36–41; “In Conjunction with Venus,” IEEE Spectrum 34, 12 (December 1997): 31–38.
Steven J. Dick, Oral History Interview with P. Kenneth Seidelmann: July 20, 2000 (Washington, DC: US Naval Observatory, 2000); Ekelund, “History of the ODP at JPL,” p. 4. On Neil Block/Gary Duncan astrologer, see Michael Erlewine, “Gary Duncan (Neil Llewellyn Bloch) 1931–1988,” 2001 at http://www.solsticepoint.com/astrologersmemorial/duncan.html (accessed February 8, 2009); and Michael Erlewine, “Remembering Gary Duncan (1931–1988),” January 7, 2009, ACT Astrology, http://actastrology.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=25 (accessed February 8, 2009).
Ekelund, “History of the ODP at JPL,” p. 4; Steven J. Dick, Oral History Interview with Douglas A. O’Handley, E. Myles Standish, and Henry F. Fliegel: December 4, 1999 (Washington: US Naval Observatory, 1999); and The History of Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing, “Charles L. Lawson” http://history.siam.org/oralhistories/lawson.htm (accessed February 4, 2009).
Charles L. Lawson, “JPL Ephemeris Development, 1960–1967,” February 23, 1981, p. 3, box 13, folder 159, Daniel J. Alderson Collection, JPL Archives; E. Myles Standish, interview by author, JPL, April 16, 2007, pp. 3–4, tape and transcript, NHRC; Hoffleit, Astronomy at Yale, 199; Ekelund, “History of the ODP at JPL,” p. 4.
Lawson, “JPL Ephemeris Development, 1960–1967,” p. 2; “J. Derral Mulholland” at http://setas-www.larc.nasa.gov/LDEF/MET_DEB/IDE /TEAMVITA/JDMVITA.HTM (accessed February 6, 2009). Herrick students’ dissertations in boxes 4 and 5, Samuel Herrick Papers, Archives of American Aerospace Exploration, Ms78–002, Special Collections Department, University Libraries, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA. On Moyer’s arrival at JPL, see “About the Author: Theodore D. Moyer,” http://descanso.jpl.nasa.gov/Monograph/bios/moyer.cfm?force_external=0 (accessed February 6, 2009).
J. Derral Mulholland and Neil O. Block, JPL Lunar Ephemeris Number 4, Technical Memorandum 33–346 (Pasadena: JPL, April 15, 1967); Charles J. Devine, JPL Development Ephemeris Number 19, Technical Report 32–1181 (Pasadena: JPL, November 15, 1967); Lawson, “JPL Ephemeris Development, 1960–1967,” p. 2; Peabody, Scott, and Orozco, Users’ Description of JPL Ephemeris Tapes, pp. 1–2.
Douglas A. O’Handley, Douglas B. Holdridge, William G. Melbourne, and J. Derral Mulholland, JPL Development Ephemeris Number 69, Technical Report 32–1465 (Pasadena: JPL, December 15, 1969), p. 1; E. Myles Standish, Michael S. W. Keesey, and X. X. Newhall, JPL Development Ephemeris Number 96, Technical Report 32–1603 (Pasadena: JPL, February 29, 1976), p. 7.
Hudson, Subtabulated Lunar and Planetary Ephemerides, 1; Dirk Brouwer, “An Assessment of the Present Accuracy of the Value of the Astronomical Unit,” Navigation 9, 3 (Autumn 1962): 206; Anderson, Determination of the Masses, 7; Clarke, “Earth Radius/Kilometer Conversion Factor,” p. 363.
Jay Henry Lieske, “A Dynamical Determination of the Solar Parallax from the Motion of (433) Eros,” 1968, cited in Hoffleit, Astronomy at Yale, p. 199.
Lawson, “JPL Ephemeris Development, 1960–1967,” p. 3; Standish, interview, p. 8; O’Handley, Holdridge, Melbourne, and Mulholland, JPL Development Ephemeris Number 69, pp. iv, 3–5.
Jay Henry Lieske, Newtonian Planetary Ephemerides 1800–2000: Development Ephemeris Number 28, Technical Report 32–1206 (Pasadena: JPL, November 15, 1967), pp. 1–2; Joachim Schubart and Peter Stumpff, On an N-Body Program of High Accuracy for the Computation of Ephemerides of Minor Planets and Comets, ARI-Heidelberg Veröffentlichungen, No. 18 (Karlsruhe: Verlag G. Braun, 1966).
Lawson, “JPL Ephemeris Development, 1960–1967,” p. 3; Standish, interview, p. 8; O’Handley, Holdridge, Melbourne, and Mulholland, JPL Development Ephemeris Number 69, pp. iv, 3–5.
X. X. Newhall, E. Myles Standish, and James G. Williams, “DE 102: A Numerically Integrated Ephemeris of the Moon and Planets Spanning Forty-For Centuries,” Astronomy and Astrophysics 125 (1983): 150–51.
Carroll O. Alley, “Story of the Development of the Apollo 11 Laser Ranging Retro-Reflector Experiment,” Adventures in Experimental Physics (1972): 132–49.
O’Handley, Holdridge, Melbourne, and Mulholland, JPL Development Ephemeris Number 69, pp. iv, 4, 5; Lawson, “JPL Ephemeris Development, 1960–1967,” p. 2; E. Myles Standish, S. W. Keesey, and X. X. Newhall, JPL Development Ephemeris Number 96, Technical Report 32–1603 (Pasadena: JPL, February 29, 1976), pp. 2, 5.
Gerald M. Clemence, “The System of Astronomical Constants,” Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics 3 (1965): 96–97. The need for new constants moved Clemence to write “On the System of Astronomical Constants,” The Astronomical Journal 53 (May 1948): 169–79.
Clemence, “The System of Astronomical Constants,” pp. 97–98; Nicholas A. Renzetti, Tracking and Data Acquisition Support for the Mariner Venus 1962 Mission, Technical Memorandum 33–212 (Pasadena: JPL, July 1, 1965), 9, 17, 75–76; Corliss, A History of the Deep Space Network, p. 29.
Kovalevsky, “Introductory Remarks,” Highlights of Astronomy 3 (1974): 209; B. Emerson and G. A. Wilkins, eds., “The IAU System of Astronomical Constants,” Celestial Mechanics 4 (1971): 128, 136.
Melbourne, Mulholland, Sjogren, and Sturms, Constants and Related Information pp. 33, 35.
Emerson and Wilkins, “The IAU System of Astronomical Constants,” pp. 138–39, 144, 147; P. Kenneth Seidelmann, “The Ephemerides: Past, Present, and Future,” in Raynor L. Duncombe, ed., Dynamics of the Solar System (Boston: D. Reidel Publishing Company, 1979), p. 99; Dick, Sky and Ocean Joined, p. 430.
Emerson and Wilkins, “The IAU System of Astronomical Constants,” pp. 128–49, 147–48; Seidelmann, “The Ephemerides,” pp. 99, 101; Dick, Sky and Ocean Joined, p. 538.
Standish, “The JPL Planetary Ephemerides,” Celestial Mechanics 26 (1982): 181–86; Newhall, Standish, and Williams, “DE 102: A Numerically Integrated Ephemeris of the Moon and Planets,” pp. 150–67; E. Myles Standish, “The Observational Basis for JPL’s DE 200, the Planetary Ephemerides of the Astronomical Almanac,” Astronomy and Astrophysics 233, 1 (July 1990): 252–71; Notes, telephone interview, Seidelmann, with author, February 16, 2009.
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Butrica, A.J. (2013). Redefining Celestial Mechanics in the Space Age: Astrodynamics, Deep-Space Navigation, and the Pursuit of Accuracy. In: Launius, R.D. (eds) Exploring the Solar System. Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137273178_5
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