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Editors' note: This is part of a series examining 50 years of space exploration.
For anyone who's ever been stuck in rush-hour traffic on U.S. Highway 101 through Silicon Valley, the region's overgrowth of green-glass office buildings, ugly tech company headquarters and expensive cars is a frustrating flip side to the steady stream of world-changing innovation that has emerged there.
But if you'd visited the region in 1930, all you'd have seen was a two-lane highway cutting through acres and acres of nothing but farmland and tiny hamlets, and not even a hint of what would someday become arguably the most important commercial technology center in the world.
In December of that year, however, word came that the U.S. Navy was going to open an air station in Sunnyvale, Calif., one that would handle gigantic airships and that would need a mammoth hangar.
The result? The Sunnyvale Naval Air Station, later known as NASA Moffett Field. And today, Moffett is home to NASA's Ames Research Center, a facility that is at the heart of Silicon Valley, both geographically and figuratively. In 1930 the region didn't know what was about to arrive, but it soon realized how much change was coming.
"Industries allied to aviation will spring up like mushrooms, each bringing its own payroll," wrote the San Jose Mercury Herald in 1931, according to NASA. "It means in short that San Jose and the Bay region are on the threshold of the most glorious era of posterity in their history."
Usually, such proclamations fall short of reality, but on this the newspaper was spot on. While the projected growth was expected to be tied to aviation, not space research, the arrival in 1939 of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics--the precursor to NASA--and later NASA itself helped drag the Valley into the center of American industry.
Of course, Silicon Valley has grown way beyond NASA since the Apollo program was leaning on researchers from Stanford, nearby University of California at Berkeley and a number of small companies that started to dot the area in the 1960s. But in the crucial early years of the Valley's technology industry, government contracts played a key role.
"Several companies in what would become Silicon Valley benefited from the ambitious goals and budget largesse of the Apollo space program," said Dag Spicer, the senior curator of the Computer History Museum, in Mountain View, Calif. "The stringent quality and performance requirements of (integrated circuits) for Apollo allowed early semiconductor companies to learn at government (that is, public) expense, a technology that would soon have broad application and whose price would plummet as these companies perfected manufacturing methods."
A list of companies that emerged to take advantage of NASA's work on integrated circuits would be impossible to compile today, but there's no doubt that among the biggest winners on such a list would be Fairchild Semiconductor, and Intel, which was founded by Fairchild's Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore.
50 years in space
"Fairchild...was likely the largest recipient of government-related integrated circuit work," said Spicer. "The irony of these early contracts was that, while they were welcome in the early 1960s (when) semiconductor companies were learning how to make integrated circuits, by 1970, government/military work was frequently viewed as a damper on profits and innovation since it took people and resources away from research and development into newer and more profitable commercial products."
Nonetheless, the Apollo program turned out to be a fantastic source of technology that would eventually find its way into commercial products and applications. Also among the companies that would most benefit from the program was Hewlett-Packard. HP's association with the space program, in fact, pre-dates NASA, according to Measure magazine.
"HP's instrument sales force has been selling to the space program since the 1950s, before NASA was formally created," wrote Measure magazine in 1983, according to information provided by Devon Dawson, an archivist for HP spinoff Agilent Technologies. "NASA and its contractors use instruments from virtually every HP division to develop, test and support the sophisticated electronic equipment used in all NASA programs."
Specific instances of the HP-NASA alliance on the Apollo 11 program abound, Measure wrote in its September 1969 issue: The launch control facility at Cape Kennedy and Houston's Mission Control Center both utilized HP technology such as FM-AM telemetering signal generators and RF vector impedance meters. And, HP's Precision Frequency Source keyed to a cesium clock built by the company "provided the precise frequency outputs used for thousandths-of-a-second accuracy throughout the worldwide Apollo network of tracking stations and communications systems."
The relationship between HP and NASA has stayed strong, Dawson said. Among the space programs employing HP or Agilent technology are space shuttle missions, Mariner missions, Voyager 2, the 1995 docking of the Atlantis shuttle with the Mir Space Station and the Lunar Prospector in 1997.
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But the impact of the Apollo program on commercial technology goes far beyond such highly specialized equipment and missions. According to Bruce Damer, founder of the DigiBarn computer museum and a frequent NASA contractor himself through his company DigitalSpace, it's possible to draw a direct evolutionary link between the simple flight simulators NASA was using for the Apollo astronauts in 1967 and 1968--what he called "one of the first highly interactive computer environments"--and some of the early commercial video games.
Similarly, NASA's work with wind tunnels at Moffett became so expensive that the agency decided to turn to supercomputers for more cost-effective simulations.
And that, in conjunction with work done at Ames on tele-operations and telepresence--research that tried to simulate the interior of the space shuttle--led to the creation of 3D graphics, head-mounted displays and early virtual reality technology, all partially funded by NASA.
"Starting in the 1960s, as the needs became more necessary...I think that drove the research on graphics tech and certainly computing in general," said Scott Fisher, chair of the interactive media division in the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts, and the founding director of the Virtual Environment Workstation Project (VIEW) at NASA Ames. "When we built a real-time virtual environment system and the flow visualization guys used it to input their data, they were ecstatic that they could manipulate viewpoints into their data by just moving their head or walking around in the data as opposed to typing in a set of coordinates for each new viewpoint."
Another technology to come out of NASA and later find its way into industry was the use of audio technology in pilots' computerized interfaces, said Fisher.
"NASA did lots of work on finding the best ways to alert a pilot to some system problem," Fisher said. "Audio turned out to be very effective." Now, nearly 20 years later, the technology is making its way into video games and other off-the-shelf commercial systems, he said.
The relationship between NASA and space technologies and Silicon Valley and the companies that have blossomed there may best have been summed up by Northrop Grumman chairman and CEO Ronald Sugar in a speech he gave on September 20 at the 50th Anniversary of Space Exploration conference in Pasadena, Calif.
"Space exploration and use has created new industries that today generate billions of dollars of revenue, employ millions of people worldwide and improve the lives of virtually everyone," said Sugar. "Space, which first served as a coliseum for two grappling superpowers, now welcomes new nations to explore and utilize its potential, and in the process, draws all mankind closer together."
Of course, for those who work or worked in the space industry, the experience of being involved with such technologies and seeing how they affected the rest of the world is something that will always be special.
"Having the space program as a very challenging real-world mission to focus tech development around was tremendously inspiring and productive," said Fisher.
Stories
Day 1: Private industry moves to take over space race
The space race taking shape in the private sector today is due in large part to boyhood dreams of becoming astronauts.
Day 1: Space entrepreneur shoots for the moon
Space Adventures CEO Peter Diamandis talks about the future of private space travel to the moon and beyond.
Day 1: Key milestones in space exploration
A timeline of some of the events that brought humans into space and will guide where we go next.
Day 2: Silicon galaxy
Technologies developed by NASA have led to some of the most important commercial innovations to come out of Silicon Valley.
Day 2: The satellite age
The commercial satellite market has grown into a multibillion-dollar industry, but future growth could suffer.
Day 3: Do we need NASA?
Is NASA still worth spending more than $16 billion in taxpayer money each year?
Day 3: Designing a 21st-century space suit
MIT professor Dava Newman tells how the form-fitting BioSuit will help give NASA a ready-to-wear outfit for the moon and Mars.
Photo galleries
Memories from the space age
CNET News.com readers (and writers) share their memories from the early days of space exploration. October 5, 2007
Japan probe approaches moon
A new space race is getting under way, with as many as five nations expecting to land hardware on the moon within five years. October 4, 2007
Who's who in space travel
The private sector is laying the groundwork for a new era of space exploration. October 3, 2007
A half-century of space flight
We take a look at how the ships that enable space exploration are evolving. October 1, 2007
Strange visitors to other planets
The first Voyager spacecraft left Earth 30 years ago. Now, nearly 10 billion miles from home, they aren't finished yet.August 28, 2007
Building a better space suit
At MIT and the University of North Dakota, researchers are trying out new designs to clothe astronauts heading to Mars. July 18, 2007
Stellar views from the Hubble at 17
NASA and ESA celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope's anniversary with colliding stars and supernovas.April 25, 2007
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HEDGOESHERE -->News from around the Web
The race to space: Recalling Sputnik
The Baltimore Sun
Sputnik stunned the world, and its rocket scared the Pentagon
Wired
Science Times special coverage
New York Times
The next 50 years in space
Associated Content
Happy birthday, Sputnik! (Thanks for the Internet)
Computerworld
Thank Sputnik for today's orbital freedom
Christian Science Monitor
Credits
Editors: Jennifer Guevin, Jim Kerstetter
Design: Andrew Ballagh
Production: Madeleine Kempton
Two major principles of global competitiveness, universally applicable to any industry, including space exploration, are as simple as this:
1. Do something so revolutionary new and profitable, that no one else in world can do, OR;
2. Do the same that others are doing, but do it more cost effectively.
Hopefully, NASA will follow these simple guidelines to preserve its leadership position in Space.
-its kinda an old given considering (Super)Computers helped put NASA into Space.
ya I know, "the glass is half-emty"
:)
Approximately 365 Agena spacecrafts supporting a wide variety of missions from NASA's early interplanetary efforts; the US Navy's SeaSat; to the USAF's Corona (the nation's first photoreconnaissance satellite system, collecting both intelligence and mapping imagery) were launched between January 1959 and February 1987.
The Polaris program, the world's 1st submarine-launched ballistic missile, started development in 1956, with its first flight test in 1958. The Polaris has evolved through Polaris (A2), Polaris (A3), Poseidon (C3) Trident I (C4) and ongoing with today's Trident II (D5). All of this and much more without the help of computers. Then......
CADAM (Computer Augmented Design And Manufacturing) is a CAD related product that was developed by Lockheed in Sunnyvale, Ca.
The nearby Lockheed Palo Alto Research Labs invented Dialog Information Services, the world's 1st searchable professional information database decades before Google.
Regardless of your views about these products impact, you must admit this effort took engineering brilliance never seen before, anywhere.....
Los Angeles also played a role in the 50's-60's, they had many of
the first software stand-outs. It was mainly IBM machines being
used, and those machines were made with very little software to
run them.
The Silicon Valley history museum is writing the history as if
everything came from the Valley. To be expected, but to bad for
that.
Approximately 365 Agena spacecrafts supporting a wide variety of missions from NASA's early interplanetary efforts; the US Navy's SeaSat; to the USAF's Corona (the nation's first photoreconnaissance satellite system, collecting both intelligence and mapping imagery) were launched between January 1959 and February 1987.
The Polaris program, the world's 1st submarine-launched ballistic missile, started development in 1956, with its first flight test in 1958. The Polaris has evolved through Polaris (A2), Polaris (A3), Poseidon (C3) Trident I (C4) and ongoing with today's Trident II (D5). All of this and much more without the help of computers. Then......
CADAM (Computer Augmented Design And Manufacturing) is a CAD related product that was developed by Lockheed in Sunnyvale, Ca.
The nearby Lockheed Palo Alto Research Labs invented Dialog Information Services, the world's 1st searchable professional information database decades before Google.
Regardless of your views about these products impact, you must admit this effort took engineering brilliance never seen before, anywhere.....
of System-of-Systems to take advantage of fast evolving
technologies. One needs a big-daddy to fund, set a
breeding ground & nurture frontier bleeding edge
technologies. I think when an agency ages, competancy
to setup platforms may erode; because comptency is
built with basic science & math that exploit technology.
This is where NASA can potentially be stuck, unable
to change track & hence unable to define new platforms
to exploit. NASA has to dig deep. It is not easy.
Wright Bros. set the stage for NASA & not the other
way. ...and this is the crucial missing link as we
enter 21st century. Where is next Wright Bros. in
NASA's backyard? As we speak, NASA needs to be aware
of next crucial race: Flying Car! NASA is about
1.5 decades behind in thinking on this. Flying Car
is one of the next System-of-Systems platform.
We don't need no James Bond to figure this out,
do we? NASA has it all but unable to look within
& re-define itself.
ago, how Varian and Associates, with RADAR work
from WWII, had started the Electronics Industry
around Palo Alto and Sunnyvale, which was later
seconded by Fairchild Semiconductor, subsidiary
of Fairchild Camera I believe. with increasing
numbers of others, largely making War Industry
apparatus and electronics parts - the Actual
Leavening of 'Silicon Valley'. If I remember
right, NASA wasn't even mentioned for flowering
of Electronics and High Tech related Industry
which grew up in San Jose/Santa Clara/Sunnyvale/
Palo Alto area. //
I lived in East San Jose and as a boy returning
from the grocery on my bike had witnessed the
crash of two Navy Jets almost over head, circa
1960, which prompted the move of the Naval Air
Station at Moffet inland, a departure which then
allowed NASA-Ames to expand greatly and flower at
the Mountain View site of a former Naval Base. //
My understanding is that NASA was been typically
applying using Existing DERIVATIVE Technology,
fall-out from Military Hardware Designs, Parts
and Production Methods. //
I think NASA's Main Product has been Gee-Whiz
Propaganda and was so successful at this that a
Generation or Two of Children grew up mistakenly
thinking that a Very Low Orbit, Upper Atmosphere Skimming, Unable-for-Deep-Space-Flight Vehicle -
The Space Shuttle - was a Space Ship, even to an
extent that Science Programs, especially those
targeting youth in part, would often show diagrams
and graphics, sometimes even crayon drawings made
by Children, suggesting the Space Shuttle in some
Interplanetary or at least trans-Lunar Flight! //
In the late 1990's someone took a check on the
Annual Patent Output of NASA vs General Electric,
which had similar sized technically trained work
forces, with NASA having about six in a year but
General Electric about 6000. Perhaps NASA is NOT
such an Innovator after all, but just a well-paid
contract-candy dispenser for Private US Aerospace
Industry?! //
NASA has certainly been a Great Political SHOW
Machine! //
Hasn't NASA at times has bought a small company
or two - compare with Microsoft putatively doing
similar - having some innovation it wanted, so
making itself LOOK More Inventive than it was? //
In the late 1990s I read NASA claims of its new
inventions as it presented them on the Net, and -
WOW! - It was AMAZING how year after year, small
variations on control or application of the Nolan
Electric Motor Controller, could be counted as
a new, independent inventions. //
In MY Opinion, NASA's most poignant moment in
History was NOT the Apollo 11 Moon Landing, nor
the Apollo 13 Cliff Hanger, but in my estimation
was the culmination of its prepping of the media,
the nation and the world, for America's "Teacher
in SPACE", with defiant launch of the Challenger
into disaster against advice of some Concerned
Morton-Thiokol Engineers (later 'flushed out' to
please NASA?!?!) who were fearful that between
section SSB Seals might lack enough flexibility
properties because of the cool weather in which
the Shuttle had been standing waiting for launch,
allegedly, according to some rumors at the time, "Just so Chimpsidork Raygun could then Hoot on
a Phone Link to the Teacher in Space!" [had the
mission actually succeeded in making orbit!] on
National TV from his Snake-of-the-Bunion Podium...
I wonder how much of that is actually true! //
Remember, ex-Elite-NAZI von Braun ACTUALLY guided
the creation of a functional Trans-Lunar, and
potentially interplanetary Space System (had it a
meassure of further development), The Saturn V/II
etc Apollo MOON Rocket Vehicle ... // What has
"Man-In-Space" done since, except repair Hubble,
a laudable act, or a few other satellites, and
bring sections, equipment and people to the
International Space Station 'Zeta' (They wanted
us to call it 'ALPHA' making it seem First, but
in fact there was an American Sky or Space Lab,
launched by The Last Operational Saturn, at last
brought down over Australia as its orbit decayed
- if I remember correctly) or a few small Soviet
stations - Salyut and Mir - which existed prior
to ISS 'Alpha' and served over a number of years
of Earth-Hugging 'Space Exploration'. //
LOOK!: A Station orbiting Mars just as closely as
ISS does Earth would be called a 'MARS Station'!
Likewise the ISS shoul;d be seen, in my less than
humble stimation, as the Low-Orbit EARTH Station,
NOT a "Space Station"! Ciao!
Gary - <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://pw1.netcom.com/~mthorn/divinepr.htm" target="_newWindow">http://pw1.netcom.com/~mthorn/divinepr.htm</a>
-------------------------------------------------
apple statement into an unrelated story: "Bill Gates certainly stole
ideas, but he took them, twisted them and made them much better.
Apple is behind the curve because they don't allow innovation:
blocked iPhones anyone one?"
That's a twisted view of history and reality.
Everybody can use it for non-commercial purpose: it?s free for all. Let?s celebrate this milestone in human?s history: 10.04.1957 ? 10.04.2007
You can also preview the image on the front page at: <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.alexanderbell.us/Custom_Images/Sputnik50_Postcard.jpg" target="_newWindow">http://www.alexanderbell.us/Custom_Images/Sputnik50_Postcard.jpg</a>
In addition to this the slide show of the old Soviet Space exploration Post stamps is available online (warning for viewers: folks, beware of commie propaganda embedded in that old stamps of Soviet era):
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.alexanderbell.us/Photos.aspx?AlbumID=7" target="_newWindow">http://www.alexanderbell.us/Photos.aspx?AlbumID=7</a>
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.alexanderbell.us/Details.aspx?AlbumID=7" target="_newWindow">http://www.alexanderbell.us/Details.aspx?AlbumID=7</a>
Then the mighty nation slept for 40 years while other nations learned the lesson that those who dare and venture and build reap great economic and power profits. When the "nation that once did" finally woke up they found that they had forgotten how to get to the moon. And so they made excuses that it didn't make any difference anyway and turned back to watching billion dollar sports teams on plasma televisions they soon would no longer be able to afford.
Then one of the other nation's leader declared that his citizens would walk on the moon within a decade. And the rest of the world knew the benefits that would come from that countries daring and wondered whatever became of that once bold country that slept for so long.