Designing a Cosmonaut: The Technopolitics of Automation in the Soviet Human Space Program, 1961-1986

该项目解决了苏联人类太空计划中的一个基本紧张关系：航天器设计师推动完全自动化与宇航员军团在控制太空任务中发挥积极作用的愿望之间的冲突。它探讨了各种制度，社会，文化和政治因素，塑造了苏联的航天器控制方法，并探讨了苏联对自动化的重视如何影响宇航员的职业身份，太空探索的公众形象，以及太空竞赛的结果。目标和方法本项目旨在对航天器设计师、宇航员和人类工程专家的观点进行全面的批判性分析，研究苏联太空计划不同阶段人与机器之间的功能分工，将人机问题置于更大的技术、社会和政治背景下，调查苏联太空工程师所做选择的后果，并从这些历史发展中吸取教训，为今天理解复杂技术系统中的人机交互提供借鉴。该项目将为约翰霍普金斯大学出版社完成一本书的手稿。该项目开发了技术政治学的理论概念，结合科学技术研究提供的分析视角，并在科学仪器历史研究开发的概念框架内研究人机交互。该项目结合了最近解密文件的档案研究，深入采访航天器设计师，宇航员和人类工程专家，并检查博物馆文物。智力优点这项研究将重新评估苏联人类太空计划的历史，通过显示航天器控制工程的人机问题的中心地位，并通过研究这些问题的争论对苏联太空政策的影响。它将阐明军事背景在苏联太空计划中塑造民用技术的作用。通过研究人与机器之间的功能分工如何与参与太空计划的不同专业团体之间的权力分工联系起来，该项目将进一步理解社会背景在塑造技术设计中的作用。比较美国和苏联太空计划中不同的自动化方法将有助于确定这些计划的独特之处，了解两个太空计划中工程文化的多样性，并确定国家背景在塑造技术发展中的作用。更广泛的影响这本书产生的这个项目将用于在高等本科和研究生水平的课程空间历史，苏联历史和冷战期间的技术史。这项研究将对技术的历史和社会研究具有理论意义，为分析不同文化和政治背景下自动化的社会方面提供了一个新的框架。该项目还将有助于目前关于人类与机器人空间探索的作用以及人类操作员在复杂、高风险技术系统中的适当作用的辩论。

Project SummaryThis project addresses a fundamental tension within the Soviet human space program: a clash between spacecraft designers push for complete automation and the aspirations of the cosmonaut corps to play an active role in controlling space missions. It explores various institutional, social, cultural, and political factors that shaped the Soviet approach to spacecraft control, and examines how the Soviet emphasis on automation influenced the professional identity of cosmonauts, the public image of space exploration, and the outcome of the space race. Objectives and Methods This project aims to conduct a comprehensive critical analysis of spacecraft designers, cosmonauts, and human engineering specialists perspectives, examine the division of functions between human and machine at different stages in the Soviet space program, place human-machineissues in a larger technical, social, and political context, investigate the consequences ofchoices made by Soviet space engineers, and draw lessons from these historical developments for todays understanding of human-machine interaction in complex technological systems. The project will result in a book manuscript for the Johns Hopkins University Press. The project develops the theoretical concept of technopolitics in connection with analytical perspectives offered by science and technology studies, and studies human-machine interaction within the conceptual framework developed by historical studies of scientific instrumentation. The project combines archival studies of recently declassified documents, in-depth interviews with spacecraft designers, cosmonauts, and human engineering specialists, and examination of museum artifacts.Intellectual Merit This study will reevaluate the history of the Soviet human space program by showing the centrality of human-machine issues for spacecraft control engineering and by examining the impact of the debates over these issues on Soviet space policy. It will illuminate the role of the military context in shaping civilian technologies in the Soviet space program. By investigating how the division of function between human and machine on board is linked to the division of power among different professional groups involved in the space program, this project will further the understanding of the role of social context in shaping technological design. A comparison of different approaches to automation in the American and Soviet space programs will help define what is unique about these programs, to understand the diversity of engineering cultures within the two space programs, and to determine the role of national context in shaping technological development. Broader Impacts The book resulting from this project will be intended for use in advanced undergraduate and graduate-level courses on space history, Soviet history, and the history of technology during the Cold War. This study will have theoretical significance for the history and social study of technology in general, suggesting a new framework for analyzing the social aspects of automation in different cultural and political contexts. This project will also contribute to the current debates about the role of human vs. robotic space exploration and about the proper role of human operator in complex, high-risk technological systems.