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IT is in Space! Sixty-five years ago this October, the Earth shrank. While it remained 24,901 miles in circumference, to humans, it began to seem much smaller. Human progress is often motivated by fear and, in 1957, the world was very fearful. On October 4th, 1957, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) launched the first orbital satellite; “Sputnik”. After millennia of finding safety in physical distance, the “enemy” could be overhead at any time. Therefore, our perceived safety disappeared, and the world shrank. Ironically, the United States may have motivated the USSR’s space program when the US announced in 1955 that they would launch an “artificial satellite”. Seeing an opportunity to raise their profile on the world stage, the Soviet Union initiated a competing program. And the race was on - the Space Race. Sputnik is the Russian word for satellite. Based on the root word “putnik” [meaning traveler], “sputnik” was coined 100 years earlier to refer to celestial bodies. As this device was designed to orbit the Earth, “fellow traveler” seemed an appropriate moniker. While this is an article about Information Technology (“IT”), there was surprisingly little technology in Sputnik. It was little more than a space-based radio. Sputnik used four external radio antennas to broadcast radio pulses that could be heard by radio amateurs across the globe. After just 22 days and 326 orbits of the Earth, Sputnik’s batteries died, and it fell silent. Inertia kept it orbiting for about five more weeks when it burned up reentering the atmosphere. While there was little IT in Sputnik, the program was enabled by a mainframe computer at the USSR Academy of Sciences. At the time, IT was too big, too heavy, and too fragile to shoot into space. As with Sputnik, US missions were controlled by computers on Earth until Project Gemini, which used the first on-board computer. Gemini carried a 39-bit computer that used magnetic tape to store programs. These instructions were manually moved from tape to memory at each phase of the mission. Ten years ago, we used to say that smartphones were get IT done
more powerful that the multimillion-dollar computer that took us to the moon. Today, a USB-C charger has more processing power than the Apollo’s computers [comparing RAM and memory]. As technology increased terrestrially, it increased orbitally as well. Today, technology abounds in space. We have satellites that look down [military and civilian observation satellites], satellites that look up [space telescopes], navigation satellites [GPS], communications satellites [voice and video], weather satellites, and assorted military satellites with mysterious purposes. To top it off, we have also created a vacation home in space, the International Space Station. Not all this technology remained close to home; we sent probes throughout our solar system and sent exploration vehicles to our nearest neighbors. We sent five interstellar probes: Voyager 1, Voyager 2, Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, and New Horizons. Our solar system is extraordinarily large; while Pluto is 3.7 billion miles from the Sun, the actual edge of our solar system is about 9 billion miles out. So far, Voyager 1, Voyager 2, and Pioneer 10 are the only probes to have reached this distance. Currently, the most distant manufactured object is the Voyager 1 at 14.5 billion miles. Regrettably, our use of space continues with little thought about what happens to these devices when they cease to function. We are surrounded by space junk that is a hazard to functioning satellites as well as to people on Earth when they occasionally fall and shower parts across the globe. Keep an eye open for IT falling from space and… And Think About IT!
Tony Keefe, COO, Entre Computer Services www.entrecs.com JUNE 2022 The ROCHESTER ENGINEER | 13
