The role of computers in space exploration

c. R. GATES
and
W. H. PICKERING

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, California

craft, with respect to the economy and precision of its

design; the performance of the navigation system, in
the accuracy with which the spacecraft can be guided
to the moon or Mars; and the performance of the data
gathering system with respect to the amount of data
which can be gathered and the speed and accuracy
with which it can be analyzed.
In my discussion I will describe some of the more
prominent ways in which computers have been used
INTRODUCTION in the space program.

The modern digital computer has been fundamental TRAJECTORIES AND

to the space exploration program. Computers have pro- CELESTIAL MECHANICS
foundly affected almost every aspect of space tech-
nology, including spacecraft design, celestial mechanics, The most dramatic usage of computers in the space
mission control, and the gathering and processing of program is probably in the field of celestial mechanics.
data generated by the spacecraft. Indeed, the evolution Celestial mechanics is the oldest of the sciences, and
and growth of computer technology is suggestively since a spacecraft in flight behaves like a miniature
parallel to the growth in space technology. planet, our trajectories and navigation are based on this
Perhaps the most revealing way to examine our in- ancient and ancestral science.
debtedness to computers is to recall conditions before Mathematically, celestial mechanics is concerned
computers were available. Fifteen years ago our main with the solution of Newton's equations. From New-
project at JPL was the Corporal, a ballistic missile with ton's time until very recently, solutions were obtained
a range of some tens of miles. The calculation of its only with prodigious labor and by means of amazing
trajectory took three weeks of intense labor; now we and ingenious mathematical contortions. The digital
can compute the trajectory of a spacecraft to Mars in computer and the impetus of the space program have
a few minutes. Formerly, solving a problem in control profoundly affected celestial mechanics. Computer cal-
stability or structural design involved many hours of culation of the trajectory of a spacecraft such as Mar-
hand calculation and was likely to require extensive iner IV is quite straightforward, even though the
laboratory experimentation; now, many problems in numerical techniques used are sophisticated. In the
these fields are solved more cheaply, more accurately, selection of trajectories for Mariner, many hundreds
and more quickly by means of the computer. of trajectories were calculated and analyzed in order
In the last analysis, the effect of modern, high-speed to determine those trajectories which give the best ac-
computers on the space exploration program has been curacy, payload weight, and picture quality at Mars.
to increase performance—the performance of the space- The computer also greatly increases the accuracy

33
34 The Role of Computers in Space Exploration

with which a spacecraft such as Mariner can be of tracking data are analyzed in order to determine
guided. For the guidance of Mariner, the orbit is de- the orbital parameters of the spacecraft.
termined from radar data, and a small maneuver to We have been one of the pioneers in time-shared mul-
be executed by the spacecraft is calculated. The com- tiple-channel computer usage, in which a number of
puter permits these calculations to be carried out swiftly users can simultaneously communicate with the ma-
and accurately while the spacecraft is in flight; with- chine and receive output. At times I think we would
out the computer, approximations of much less ac- have gladly relinquished the pioneering honor to some-
curacy would have to be used. one else; the problems in such a system—the interaction
between programs, the difficulty in diagnosis, the in-
SPACE FLIGHT OPERATIONS: telligibility of a program only to the programmer who
SPACECRAFT COMMAND AND CONTROL wrote it, the difficulty in reproducing a condition in
which a failure occurred, the problems of meeting
The largest use of computers at the Jet Propulsion schedules and keeping adequate documentation—are
Laboratory is in the real-time processing of spacecraft well known. However, the system has carried out its
data for command and control purposes; we refer to flight mission reliably and successfully, the experience
this process as Space Flight Operations. gained is valuable, and most of these difficulties appear
Our Space Flight Operations Facility, or SFOF, will to be behind us.
shortly contain three "strings" of computers, each string
consisting of three computers, an IBM 7040, 7044,
SPACECRAFT DESIGN AND
and 7094. Into the SFOF come spacecraft data ob-
SPACE TECHNOLOGY
tained from tracking stations located throughout the
world. The data may be from the spacecraft, concerning In a spacecraft such as Ranger, Mariner, or Surveyor,
either the condition of the spacecraft or conditions in subsystems derived from a variety of technical dis-
space, or the data may be navigational, referring to the ciplines must all function together with tightly knit
position or velocity of the spacecraft. These data are precision and harmony. Guidance and control, com-
sent in digital form over telephone circuits to the munications, science, structural, thermal, and propul-
SFOF, where they are routed into the computers. sion subsystems must work together. Furthermore, in
After processing, the reduced data are presented to spacecraft design it is necessary to consider almost all
scientists and engineers for analysis and interpretation. of the physical properties of these subsystems—elec-
The engineers conducting these analyses have access in trical properties, weight, mass distribution, heat genera-
parallel to the computer and are able to request in real tion and conduction, reflectivity, etc. Also, there are
time various programs, options, and methods of dis- overall constraints of weight and volume placed on
play. the spacecraft. And for a planetary spacecraft there
Real-time command and control centers are also is a totally inflexible constraint of time; the spacecraft
used extensively in the manned space flight program. may be launched only at infrequent intervals, necessitat-
The control center for Mercury was at Cape Kennedy, ing accurate and reliable scheduling procedures.
supported by facilities at Goddard Space Flight Cen- The use of computers has increased the accuracy
ter. The control center for Gemini and Apollo is at the and speed with which the spacecraft and its subsystems
Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. can be designed. Using computer techniques to explore
Two basic types of computer processing are carried a whole spectrum of design possibilities, design param-
out in Space Flight Operations. In the first type, the eters can be selected quickly and precisely. The re-
real-time data stream is simply separated, translated sult is a materially increased performance. Without
into convenient units and symbols, and presented di- sacrifices in cost, reliability, or schedule, the applica-
rectly to the engineer or scientist. This is the "real-time tion of computers results in a spacecraft which will
mode," and it has been the backbone of spacecraft send back more and higher-quality scientific data re-
analysis. In the SFOF at JPL, one computer per string garding conditions in space.
is devoted to this function, which includes sorting, de- As an incidental aside, it is interesting to note that
commutating, formatting, and preparing printer and our Mariner-Mars spacecraft contained four digital
plotter output. computers. These were used for science data handling,
In the second type of processing, a quantity of ac- engineering data handling, command processing, and
cumulated data are analyzed and certain parameters ex- command sequencing.
tracted. An example of this type of processing is The impact of computers on engineering technology,
orbit determination, in which several hours or days in fields such as structural design, circuit design, heat
 The Role of Computers in Space Exploration 35

transfer, etc., has generally followed a pattern of great spacecraft, at the tracking sites, in the communication
interest and importance. Initially, computers were used link from site to SFOF, and at the SFOF, we will have
to solve problems in their traditional form. For ex- up to 10 computers handling the data.
ample, the solution to a differential equation would The role of computers in semitechnical and non-
be obtained by hand in series form, and the series was technical areas has also been vital. Computers are
then evaluated on the computer. In the next stage of used for configuration management, budget prepara-
development, the computer was given the differential tion, inventory control—the list is endless.
equation directly, which was less work for the engineer Turning to the future, we are looking forward to the
and usually yielded a more accurate solution. Today, attractive features offered by the new generation of
it is common practice to state the problem to the com- computers—the much-needed increases in capacity,
puter in terms of the end result desired, and the com- speed, memory, reliability, and ease of programming.
puter both formulates and solves the differential equa- However, the impact of computers on basic technology
tion. Thus, the computer has been applied further and is likely to have the most significant future effect on the
further upstream. space program. When I was a student, a large part of
the technology was devoted to problem-solving method-
ology. Today much of this methodology is becoming
CONCLUDING REMARKS
obsolete. The new methodology, based on fundamental
In summary, we find that the computer has touched principles and the computer, makes possible the ready
almost every phase of the Space Exploration Program. treatment of larger systems. Instead of having to analyze
Spacecraft design is now based on computer analyses, the relationship between resistor A and resistor B, the
and the result is a better spacecraft; furthermore, a engineer may treat the relationship between circuit A
steadily increasing portion of the design process is and circuit B, or system A and system B. The view-
being carried out by the computer. In celestial me- point is less microscopic, and more macroscopic. For
chanics, the effect of computers e has been dramatic. example, we are beginning to treat system characteris-
And in space flight operations, all data gathered by the tics, such as cost and reliability, as design parameters.
spacecraft are processed by computers Indeed, the num- Thus the symbols by which the technology is repre-
ber of computers we will shortly have serially in the sented, and hence our way of thinking, are being
data stream is startling; counting computers in the changed by the modern digital computer.