said an official of NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration), “by the realization that Earth is just a tiny ‘blue marble’ in the cosmos.” He was summing up the discoveries made in the last four decades by its astronauts and scientists. Many of these discoveries have been made through the use of photography, which has given us the means to view not only ourselves and our world but also the universe in a whole new way.
America’s astronauts have been acclaimed for their courage, but relatively little attention has been paid to the contributions they have made as photographers of unprecedented images such as this one of Earth as seen from space.
In 1957 the Soviet Union shocked people everywhere by launching the world’s first space satellite, Sputnik. The event caused particular alarm in the United States. American military leaders feared that the Soviet Union’s now-proven ability to place objects in space would give that country a distinct military advantage over all others. American scientists were also concerned about losing scientific superiority to the Soviets.
As a direct result of Sputnik’s launch, NASA was established, and the agency immediately began working to put not only satellites but also Americans in space. In addition, NASA officials stated that its other important goal was to lead the world in the “expansion of human knowledge of atmosphere and space.”
It was an enormous undertaking. NASA’s first task was to create and build the massive, sophisticated equipment needed to meet these goals. The agency selected the first group of astronauts who would lead America into space. The astronauts were then put through the most rigorous training program any individuals had ever experienced. Included in this training were hands-on practice in enduring the launch into space, controlling a space capsule in flight, living in a weightless state, and returning to Earth safely. Hours were also spent teaching the astronauts how to operate the lightweight, sophisticated cameras with which they would hopefully be able to record their accomplishments and even take pictures of Earth and other parts of the universe as seen from space.
NASA’s first high-profile program was called Project Mercury. Its goals were to “place a piloted spacecraft into space, observe human performance in space, and recover the human and the spacecraft safely.” On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American to fly into space, but his flight did not take him around Earth. That feat was accomplished on February 20, 1962, when astronaut John Glenn successfully orbited Earth three times.
Project Mercury was followed by Project Gemini, which built upon Mercury’s successes but used spacecraft carrying two astronauts rather than one. A major highlight of this program was the achievement of the first American space walk. The “walk” was taken by Gemini astronaut Edward H. White II, who stepped out of his space module on June 3, 1965. Along with his other equipment, White was armed with a camera, and during his twenty-three-minute, sixty-five-hundred-mile orbital stroll he took the first photographs ever produced by a photographer floating in space. They would be the first of thousands of pictures that astronauts who followed White would take from both inside and outside their spacecraft, photographs that would reveal whole new worlds.
On June 3, 1965, astronaut Edward H. White II, with his camera attached to the equipment in front of him, became the first American to step into space.
Photographs such as this one taken by James B. Irwin of his fellow astronaut David R. Scott provided new information about the moon.
Both Project Mercury and Project Gemini paved the way for Apollo. In May 1961, a year before John Glenn’s historic achievement, President John F. Kennedy had thrilled Americans by announcing an astounding objective. “I believe,” Kennedy said, “this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important in the long-range exploration of space.”
To many, Kennedy’s goal seemed impossible. Putting men into space was remarkable enough, but landing a man on the moon and bringing him back safely seemed almost unimaginable. Yet NASA accomplished it. On July 20, 1969, much of the world watched their television sets in amazement as Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon. “That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind,” he proclaimed.
That same day, Armstrong and his fellow astronaut, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, began exploring the once inaccessible moon and collecting specimens from its surface. They also began taking photographs. These pictures and the thousands of others taken by astronauts on succeeding Apollo flights provided the world with new and vital information about the moon and its relation to Earth and the rest of the universe.
Buoyed by its Apollo success, NASA officials began looking beyond the moon to even more distant celestial bodies. Actually, exploration of such planets as Mercury, Venus, and Mars had begun as early as 1962 through the use of satellites outfitted with cameras. The first of these projects was named Mariner, and, between 1962 and 1973, NASA built and sent ten Mariner spacecraft to explore the inner solar system. These unmanned, camera-equipped craft flew past and around Mercury, Venus, and Mars, taking photographs that revealed many of these planets’ craters, volcanoes, and valleys. Mariner cameras even captured images of cosmic rays produced outside the solar system. In the decades that followed the Mariner discoveries, NASA projects collected even more information about Mars, particularly once the agency succeeded in landing roving camera-equipped vehicles on the planet. Then, in 1996, NASA launched its Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), a spacecraft designed to take pictures and create maps of Mars for years to come.
Since the Mars Global Surveyor has been in operation it has produced a wealth of amazing images and has made a host of major discoveries. MGS photographs have given astronauts and scientists their first detailed understanding of the relative heights of various Martian geological features and have revealed what may well be the largest impact basin in the solar system. Most important, the continuous stream of pictures taken of Mars has shown that the planet is constantly reshaped by natural forces, including shifting sand dunes, enormous wind and dust storms, and polar ice caps that grow and recede with changing seasons.
Using extraordinary pointing precision, powerful cameras, and other optical equipment, the Hubble Space Telescope has provided stunning images of the universe.
The photographs taken by American astronauts have enabled them to visually document each space adventure, allowing them to evaluate the effectiveness of every vital piece of equipment used.
In 2001, NASA launched the Mars Odyssey orbiter which, for several months, captured even more detailed images of the planet. Three years later, the greatest breakthrough of all took place. In 2004, NASA sent the Mars Spirit Rover and the Mars Spirit Opportunity to the so-called red planet. The unmatched imagery relayed to Earth from these two camera-equipped space detectives enabled scientists to study Mars as never before. The rovers’ cameras provided many important pieces of information, including indisputable proof that large amounts of water once existed on Mars, raising the possibility that life was once possible on the distant planet.
Because of its many and varied large projects, NASA operates a host of space centers located throughout the nation. One of these, the Space Telescope Science Institute, is responsible for conducting and coordinating the operation of the Hubble Space Telescope. An astronomical marvel, the Hubble was first launched in 1990 and, as one agency official has stated, “Not since Galileo turned his telescope towards the heavens in 1610 has any event so changed our understanding of the universe.”
Equipped with highly advanced cameras, Hubble orbits 375 miles above Earth, unlocking the secrets of the heavens. Circling Earth every ninety-seven minutes, Hubble has observed more than twenty-five thousand astronomical targets and has taken more than three hundred thirty thousand pictures. Before Hubble, distances to far-off galaxies were not well known. Answers to the vital question of just how rapidly the universe is expanding were even more elusive. The stunning images and other data provided by Hubble have changed all that.
Hubble’s cameras have given us the first clear images of Saturn’s aurora in pictures that were taken when the planet was more than 800 million miles from Earth. Hubble’s cameras have also allowed astronomers to peek into the center of a cluster of stars so densely packed that the stars occasionally collided. Called Omega Centauri, the cluster is located about seventeen thousand light-years from Earth. Cameras aboard the Hubble have also taken the first pictures of a gamma-ray burst, one of the most powerful explosions in the universe. And the near-infrared camera aboard the Hubble has penetrated layers of dust in a star-forming cloud to reveal, for the first time, the inner region of those enormous clouds of gas and dust in space known as nebulae.
The photographs captured by cameras operated either by NASA or by its many related agencies have not only changed our perceptions of the universe, but have also changed the way we view our own planet. Two projects in particular, Landsat (Land Remote Sensing Satellite) and GOES (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites) have made this possible. Landsat’s remote-controlled satellites house cameras that continually provide data that is then converted into color photographs. Among their many uses, the pictures, taken far above Earth, help government and private organizations assess flood damage and plan disaster-relief and flood-control programs. Landsat images have also proven invaluable to mariners. By studying Landsat photographs, for example, ship owners and captains can avoid ice-covered ocean areas and can discover which ports are free of ice.
NASA’s GOES program, administered by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), uses camera-equipped satellites to continuously monitor weather conditions in the western hemisphere, particularly unpredictable severe storms. Commonly featured on TV weather reports across the United States and the rest of the world, pictures provided by GOES accurately predict such natural phenomena as tornadoes, hurricanes, and flash floods. They have also become essential in monitoring dust storms, volcanic eruptions, and the spread of forest fires.
Among the most spectacular and important images captured by the cameras aboard the Hubble Telescope is this picture of Saturn, which reveals never-before-seen details of the planet.
Understanding that the world beneath the sea may eventually yield great benefits to humankind, scientists armed with cameras take pictures that will help them unlock the secrets of the deep.
The photographs taken by our astronauts, the various camera-equipped satellites, and the Hubble Space Telescope have immeasurably advanced our knowledge of space. But there is another vast frontier that exists as well. It is the world that lies beneath the oceans, lakes, and seashores, a “final frontier” that, in the opinion of many scientists, has the potential to yield even more secrets and ultimately be of greater value than what has been discovered in space.
Just as NASA is responsible for our activities in space, NOAA is responsible for the “establishment of programs for the assessment, protection, development, and utilization of United States underwater resources.” In order to fulfill this responsibility, NOAA established its NOAA Undersea Research Program (NURP), which operates out of six regional centers.
These centers conduct their research by placing American scientists under the sea in a variety of ways, including the use of scuba-diving equipment, manned underwater vehicles called submersibles, remotely operated underwater vehicles, and underwater laboratories. Along with conducting research that has already vastly expanded our scientific knowledge of the world beneath the sea, the centers continue to develop new technology designed to make underwater exploration increasingly productive.
Like the astronauts, many of the scientists who have probed the ocean, lake, and coastline floors have been equipped with cameras. The photographs they have taken have provided vital new information about coral reefs, deep-water mountains and canyons, and undersea volcanoes. Their cameras have recorded the discovery of whole new ecosystems and previously unknown forms of fish and plant life.
Miles above the earth and miles below the seas, men and women equipped with cameras follow in the footsteps of incredible photographers who have come before—the people whose tireless work has changed the way we view our world and ourselves.
The photographs taken on the ocean’s floor by scientists, like these two photos of coral reefs, are the latest in a long history of pictures that expand our knowledge of the world around us.
