Interviews

Paul Weisko (PW) conducted two interviews: Max Mulcher (MM) and Professor Holland Ford (HF)
Burkely Hermann (BH) conducted two interviews: Karla Peterson (KP) and Mark Postman (MP)

Karla Peterson of the Space Telescope Science Institute

KP – Let me introduce myself. I’m Karla Peterson and I work for the Hubble space telescope, at the space telescope science institute, and I have worked for NASA for 21 years, and 17 [years] of them here, [the] first four [years] at Goddard space flight center.

BH: Can you describe your experience with space technology?

KP: My personal experience with space technology is all software and not hardware. When I was at the Goddard space flight center I used software to do satellite orbit determination and when I came to the space telescope science institute, I used software to help support the users of the Hubble space telescope. I moved over to doing testing of the software that astronomers use to use the telescope. I would help the users by answering questions, I would help the users use the software.

BH: In general, what space technology has made you the most proud?

KP: As an American of my age, I would have to say the Hubble space telescope because I got to be part of Hubble. So that’s very exciting. The results of Hubble capture people’s imaginations, and lead people to be interested in science. [Hubble] was productive scientifically. So Hubble is something to be proud of. My piece of Hubble has been the user support software.

BH: At your job, what space technology has made you the most proud?

KP: It was really, really impressive that we were able to go to the moon. As an adult, my thinking has definitely, gone towards the more robotic things, so Hubble and the rovers at mars, those are pretty exciting too. The things we can accomplish without risking human lives, and not spending as much money.

BH: How do you think space technology has improved over your course of working with it?

KP: I don’t think that the improvements we’ve had as software are anything special to NASA. I think the most recent software I was talking about, that you use in the telescope is based on innovation in computers and software that have occurred in general, and we’re just taking advantage of them.

BH: What do you think the future of space technology will be? 

KP: I’m hoping that the future of space technology is focused on robotics, not exclusively, but I want realistic plans, making the moon and mars our next goal is unrealistic and it wasted resources. It will be robotics to the extent possible, but we wouldn’t necessarily lose all ability to orbiting work.

BH: What do you think is the past legacy of space exploration in terms of the space race and society due to spillover?

KP: We can learn more and when we learn more we’ll get unexpected benefits. You want to have good manageable scientific projects and then we may get wonderful things out of them.

BH: Did they want to set up a military base on the moon?

KP: Many things I’ve read and many people that I know are of the opinion that we’ve never would’ve gone to the moon if we weren’t doing it to demonstrate our prowess during the cold war. The scientific benefits we got out of going to the moon were not the reason we spent all that money.

BH: How do you feel about Obama's plan for private space travel?

KP: It was already going in that direction. In don't think [Obama started the process of privatization.] He is receptive to it, so I don’t think you can say that it’s an innovation of his to go towards privatization. There are people who [want privatization]. We had ways that they could do cheaper than NASA does things. That’s the whole reason to privatize.

Burkely Hermann (BH) Interview: Mark Postman (MP)
Note: sound is a bit low, you may have to turn it up all the way

BH: What do you think was the cause of the 1960s Space Race?

MP- The main cause was the cold war with the Soviets...To demonstrate technological superiority over the Russians in terms of capabilities to access and control space. 

BH- What do you think is legacy of space exploration?

MP- I think one of the big legacies is we have a better appreciation of the fragility of planet Earth. Just seeing that... I think that that famous picture [called the blue marble] that Apollo 8 [took]. [The Apollo 8] was the first one that went you know to moon, first one to leave Earth orbit with people. They [the NASA Astronauts] were able to look back and see the Earth when they were 100,000 miles away [which is when they took the picture]. 


BH: What do you think the future of space exploration will be?

MP- That ultimately we have to to go some place away from the Earth. And Mars is obviously the destination that has I think the most appeal.


BH: Can you describe your experience with space technology?

MP- Well my experience is mainly been on the science side of things not so much on the exploration side. I have been involved with primarily the Hubble Telescope and more recently with the James Webb Space Telescope which the successor mission to Hubble that will be launched about 5 years from now.


BH: How do you think space technology has improved over your course of  working with it?

MP- Its improved a tremendous amount. If your [measuring the main changes in space technology]  I think our [technology has improved]. I would say that that our ability to [create better technology has improved, for example:] one payload carrier could fly many times.  One offshoot of space technology was that the miniaturization of electronic components. [Another technological improvement is] is that [the] separate mirrors act all as one [which] allows you to build a telescope that is much lighter. So, one new idea is that they could develop a robot that could go out there do the kind of things that astronauts do.


BH: How do you think commercialization will affect space exploration?

MP- I think it [will] hopefully be good thing for it. One of the things that I think NASA has especially in the last year concluded that it would be really good if the commercial industry could take over from the government the role of getting people into low Earth orbit. I think that will make access to space cheaper and more efficient. There's still a role for the government funded part of it. So for example building the very big rockets like the Saturn 5, like you might need to launch a very ambitious mission.

Paul Weisko (PW) Interview: Max Mulcher (MM)

Paul Weisko (PW): Can you describe your experience with Space Technology?

MM- I’ve been working on the Hubble space telescope since it has been launched in 1990…and uh projects that we call functional working meaning… technical work…involves space shuttle missions...testing those cameras to make sure that they are well calibrated…projects using Hubble or other telescopes…things like solar system observation… do science in a lot of different areas.

PM: What space technology has made you the most proud?

MM- You know my whole adult career has been with the Hubble space telescope, so within that, I think one of the neatest things about that is the fact that it requires these extraordinary space missions…an extraordinary human endeavor that we were capable of doing this.

PM: How do you think space technology has improved over your course of working with it?

MM- In terms of the Hubble telescope,  the telescope itself has not changed at all, its been up there since 1990, but the instruments inside it have been replaced every 3 to 5 years…we need  to upgrade the technology a lot…sort of detector technology…you could take much better images of outer space now than you could have in 1990.

PM: What do you think the future of space technology will be?

MM- … Robotics, more and more autonomous spacecraft, less dependent on; the Hubble space telescope has been very dependent on the manned space flight program. [Space probes going] further and further out into space, where its less and less likely where human beings can safely go to be repaired by human beings and have enough redundancy built in and just well built enough that they can just last a long time without needing any repairs. Telescopes and probes going further and further out on their own.

PW: What do you think is the past legacy of space exploration in terms of the space race and society due to spillover?

MM- well, the classical space race sort of ended when the Soviet Union fell, so certainly in the 1960s and everything, really our space exploration was secondary to that cold war; the fact that we were trying to one up our perceived military rivals, and nobody really refutes that. That’s why we went to the moon.

Paul Weisko (PW) interview: Professor Holland Ford (HF)

PW: Can you describe your experience with Space Technology?

HF: My experience with space technology began in 1977, when I joined a very small team to propose for an instrument on the Hubble space telescope…I was recruited for this team because the Richard Harms, could not get anyone else. Well, bottom line, we had the best technology at that time, these were called digicons, and these were devices that would measure light in 512 independent channels to find a massive black hole in the center of the galaxy.

PW: What space technology has made you the most proud?

HF: It was the first repair mission to Hubble. I and another colleague formed a strategy panel. We pulled together the very best from around the world and we met several times. We came up this idea of how to put a new instrument on Hubble… idea that no one else had thought of is… we have to sacrifice an instrument. 

PW: How do you think space technology has improved over your course of working with it?

HF: The largest improvements in the technology that I see from an astronomer’s point of view is in two areas, one is in the computing power. The first computer that went up with Hubble had less computing power than my pocket calculator. The other area is in detectors. The technology for detecting the light has greatly advanced. What’s enabled so much of the surveillance that we do from space now.

PW: What do you think the future of space technology will be?

HF: Look I think one of the areas [is] robotics. Instead of sending a human being up to repair a spacecraft, we send up a robot that’s controlled from the ground. 

PW: What do you think is the past legacy of space exploration in terms of the space race and society due to spillover?

HF: The very first one came from the race to get to the moon, and it turns out that it wasn’t a race, the Russians weren’t in it. It so was those first photographs. The first time when we saw is sometimes called the blue marble which is the Earth from space. People suddenly saw this planet, as an entirety, an entity.