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Chapter 1: A Prologue to the Space Age

Overview
Earth is the cradle of mankind, but one cannot remain in the cradle forever
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
The earliest periods of mankind's technological developmentmost notably the Stone Age,
the Bronze Age and the Iron Agewere characterised by resources used in an organised and
prolonged manner. The most recent, continuing example is the Space Age, a period of
technology development in which the resource is outer space itself.
Although earlier Ages of Man are difficult to date precisely, because of the lack of
documentation, this is not the case for the Space Age. The Space Age can be defined as
beginning with the launch of Sputnik 1on 4 October 1957since, from this point on,
organised and prolonged activity in space became possible.
Some historians argue that the first time a rocket flew high enough to cross the notional
boundary between the Earth's atmosphere and space marks the beginning of the Space Age,
but that was but a prelude to the symphony that followed. Sputnik 1 transmitted its historic
beep-beep signal for 21 days and remained in orbit around the Earth for about three
months. Although rocket-borne payloads had been flown into space before Sputnik, they
were launched on suborbital trajectories (with insufficient energy to reach orbital velocity),
allowing them to experience only a few minutes of the space environment before gravity
returned them to Earth.
It was the launch of Sputnik 1 which proved that man-made devices could operate in space
long enough to perform useful scientific investigations, preparing the way for the many
spacecraft that were to follow. As such, it ushered in the Space Age, a new technological
Age of Man deserving of its initial capitals.
In some people's minds, the Space Age is a term applied to a short era of space exploration
that culminated in the landing of a man on the Moon, but this is probably a media
construction based on a misguided impression that nothing much has happened in space
since that time. Nevertheless, those first few years were crucial in proving that space was
accessible, not only to our technological creations but also to ourselves, and in showing
what might be possible in the future.
In terms of the Ages of Man, we are still in the Space Age and will remain so as long as
spacecraft continue to be launched into space.

Space technology in perspective

Space technology has a unique place in the history of technology, since it concerns the
application of technology beyond the confines of the Earth. This application offers many
significant challenges to the engineering profession, not least in terms of the ruggedness
and reliability of its creations. Spacecraft must not only survive the hostile thermal and
radiation environment of space, but must also do so without the physical intervention of
their creators since spacecraft beyond the lowest altitude orbits cannot be retrieved or
repaired. Indeed, even communicating with a spacecraft can pose a challenge, dependent on
its distance from Earth, since it may involve signal travel-times measured in minutes, or
even hours for some planetary probes.
Space technology is also unusual because it is both a user of other technologiessuch as
electrical, electronic, mechanical, power, computing and telecommunicationsand a
developer of these technologies. Such is the challenge of developing systems that operate
reliably in the space environment, and hardware sufficiently light and compact to be
launched in the first place, that developments in space technology often require long-term
effort and significant expenditure. However, as a spin off, they often lead to improvements
in earthbound systems.
The following chapters describe the development of space technology in the late 1950s and
1960s, from the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957 to the landing of men on the Moon in 1969.
They do so by considering the technology required to place satellites in orbit and that of the
spacecraft themselves. The former concerns the development of rocketry; the latter
encompasses the development of payloads and subsystems for space science, Earth
observation and communications satellites, and the further steps required to qualify
technology for manned space applications.
First of all, however, it is useful to place these developments in their historical context.
Although the launch of Sputnik 1 was the first practical step in actual as opposed to
theoretical space exploration, space technology did not suddenly begin on 4 October 1957.
There were many developments in physics, mathematics, chemistry and other sciences,
spread over many centuries, which culminated in space exploration. Moreover, beyond the
realms of science, creative minds were working towards the opening of what would later be
termed the final frontier.
Indeed, space exploration and development is very much a cultural activity, often entered
into for political, social and economic reasons rather than the development of technology
for its own sake. It is also an endeavour that has fuelled the imagination of many an
individual, possibly since our ancestors stared up at the Moon and stars and wondered what
they were, where they were and, eventually, how one might reach them.

As with other cultural activities, such as art and music, the development of technology is an
evolutionary, iterative process influenced by what has gone before. Of course, the leading
proponents in a field are blessed with original thoughts, but no one thinks and works in a
cultural vacuum. We are all influenced in some way by the knowledge and opinions of the
day and the cultural environment in which we operate. Thus the early developers of space
technology were influenced by the science, technology, art and literature of their day.
Of course, the greatest advances are made by those with the greatest powers of imagination,
those with the ability to see beyond the common understanding of the day and extend the
boundaries of knowledge. This is a practice which often leads to ridicule from those who
lack imaginationan issue which has certainly affected the developers of space technology.
For example, no lesser individual than England's Astronomer-Royal, Sir Richard van der
Riet Woolley, was quoted in 1956 as saying space travel is utter bilge [1].
As science writer Arthur C. Clarke's third law states, any sufficiently advanced technology
is indistinguishable from magic. Indeed, it is also certain that the majority of those living in
the first half of the twentieth century would fail to comprehend what is now occurring in
orbit around the Earth on a daily basis. This was the extent of the cultural challenge for
those who were laying the foundations for space exploration at the time.
[1]

Mackay, Alan L.: The Harvest of a Quiet Eye (The Institute of Physics, Bristol, 1977) p.
164

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