ITR: Trusting the Machine: Onboard Computing, Automation, and Human Control in the Soviet Space Program, 1957-1988

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Project AbstractITR 0313044Vyacheslav Gerovitch, Dibner Institute "Trusting the Machine: Onboard Computing, Automation, and Human Control in the Soviet Space Program, 1957-1988"This project examines the crucial issue of automation vs. human control that is largely underestimated by standard histories of the Soviet space program, with a specific focus on the introduction of computers on board. It will investigate the technical, institutional, economic, and political factors that shaped the development of Soviet onboard computing and prompted Soviet designers to place much greater emphasis on automatic control systems at the expense of the role of cosmonauts in the piloted space program. Included will be a comprehensive and critical analysis of spacecraft designers, onboard computer designers, and cosmonauts' perspectives in an attempt to place the issue of human-machine interaction in a larger technical, social, and political context. The proposal will also examine the division of functions between human and machine at different stages in the Soviet space program, investigate the consequences of choices made by Soviet designers, and draw lessons from these historical developments for today's understanding of human-machine interaction in complex technological systems. The proposal combines archival studies of recently declassified documents related to the development of computing in the Soviet space program with in-depth interviews of spacecraft designers, onboard computer designers, and cosmonauts. This will produce a systematic study of the development of the Soviet onboard computing and the space program from the analytical perspectives offered by science and technology studies. The proposal will also extensively use the Web to build a network of collaboration with space program veterans and other historians. The project promises an innovative analysis of the crucial issue of automation vs. human control in the Soviet space program. The hypothesis that the delay in the introduction of onboard guidance computers had significant negative consequences for the Soviet piloted program will be tested against historical documentation. This project will place this issue in the context of the international space race and bring a comparative perspective into the study of Soviet onboard computing. It will also enhance the understanding of social, economic, and political factors that shaped the development of Soviet technology in the second half of the twentieth century. The project's website will bring together spacecraft control system designers, computer designers, cosmonauts, and historians on both sides of the Atlantic, and will thus foster collaboration across disciplinary and national boundaries. This project will also contribute to the current discussions of the problems of reliability and safety in complex human-machine systems.