Dissertation Research: The Cold War, Position, and Gravity:The World Geodetic System and the Sociotechnological Evolution of Geodesy from Space

论文研究：冷战、位置和重力：世界大地测量系统和空间大地测量的社会技术演变

• 批准号: 9811930
• 负责人: Keith Clarke
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Barbara
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1998
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1998-08-15 至 2000-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9811930&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Research; Cold; War; Position

This dissertation research project will generate the first history of modern geodesy to integrate materials from the recently-declassified CORONA reconnaissance satellite program and ancillary geodetic programs. In doing so, it will make a contribution to Cold War earth science and bridge the disciplines of history and geography. In revealing and exploring the previously hidden origins and evolution of World Geodetic System (WGS), the project will demonstrate that the civilian, military, and intelligence communities were bound to each other in complex ways that reflect the impact of the Cold War on the processes of knowledge production. The work necessarily straddles the interdisciplinary common ground between geodesy and remote sensing on the one hand, and the history of technology on the other, and borrows terminology and methodology from both. The project will 1) analyze why and how the WGS was created, and by whom, and the extraordinary constraints imposed upon its creators by the context of the Cold War; 2) interview individuals involved in the process and examine the technology hardware and organizational structures that accomplished the created of WGS so that the technological ensemble is documented as far as possible; and 3) relate the specific case of WGS to a `shuttered box` model of the sociotechnical ensemble. WGS as a case study of technological development is characterized by an extremely tight link between classified military and parallel civilian technologies, where flows to the latter resulted in unanticipated increasing returns that made further dual use and even declassification possible. Research methods include an examination of now declassified archives and primary and secondary sources, interviews with WGS scientists, and revisting previous descriptions of WGS to examine both how the work was really accomplished, and also how the accomplishment was disguised.

本论文研究项目将整合最近解密的CORONA侦察卫星计划和辅助大地测量计划的资料，生成第一部现代大地测量史。这样，它将对冷战时期的地球科学作出贡献，并在历史和地理学科之间架起一座桥梁。在揭示和探索以前隐藏的世界大地测量系统（WGS）的起源和演变过程中，该项目将展示民用、军事和情报界以复杂的方式相互联系，反映出冷战对知识生产过程的影响。这项工作必然跨越了大地测量学和遥感之间的跨学科共同基础，以及技术的历史，并借用了两者的术语和方法。该项目将1)分析WGS为何以及如何创建，由谁创建，以及冷战背景下对其创建者施加的特殊限制；2)采访过程中涉及的个人，并检查完成WGS创建的技术硬件和组织结构，以便尽可能地记录技术集成；3)将WGS的具体案例与社会技术整体的“闭盒”模型联系起来。WGS作为技术发展的一个案例研究，其特点是机密军事技术与平行民用技术之间有着极其紧密的联系，流向后者导致了意想不到的回报增加，从而使进一步的双重用途甚至解密成为可能。研究方法包括检查现在解密的档案和第一手和第二手资料，采访WGS科学家，以及重新审视以前对WGS的描述，以检查工作是如何真正完成的，以及成就是如何伪装的。