American Institute of Physics. Center for History of Physics. Study of Multi-Institutional Collaborations. Phase II: Space Science and Geophysics.
Oral history interviews. Space Science: Einstein Observatory (HEAO-2), 1992-1994.
Interviews were conducted with members of the project's collaboration using a structured question set covering all stages of in the collaborative research process: the formation of the collaboration and its personnel; the organizational structure; the formation of the experiment teams; the drafting of the proposal; funding for U.S. groups by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; use of subcontractors; development of software for data collection and analysis; the collaboration's decision-making style; role of the Project Manager, Project Scientist, Program Manager, Program Scientist, and graduates students; impact of internationalism; patterns of communications; records creation, use, distribution, and retention; also, comments on the interviewee's home institution and trends in graduate education in space science. The interviews focus on the Einstein Observatory, a high energy astrophysics observatory. They also mention it's x-ray telescope. Interviews (listed by institutional member of the collaboration and by name of individual) were conducted with: Columbia University: Thomas Hamilton, David Helfand; Goddard Space Flight Center: Elihu Boldt, Steve Holt, Frank McDonald; Massachusetts Institute of Technology: George Clark; Marshall Space Flight Center: Carroll Dailey, Fred Spear, Ernst Stuhlinger; NASA Headquarters: Richard Halpern, Albert Opp; Naval Research Laboratory: Herbert Friedman; Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory: Riccardo Giacconi, Paul Gornstein, Stephen Murray, Harvey Tanabaum. Other institutions in the collaboration include: American Science & Engineering.
Launched in 1978, the Einstein Observatory was the second spacecraft in NASA's series of High Energy Astrophysical Observatories. A self-created consortium of universities and research institute built and integrated a x-ray telescope and four instruments with varying resolutions and sensitivities to rotate into the telescope's focus. Marshall Space Flight Center was responsible for the spacecraft. Intended to obtain data on the most significant fixed x-ray sources revealed by HEAO-1, an all-sky survey, the Einstein Observatory was used independently because its users discovered so many objects of interest independent of HEAO-1. Einstein was one of the first space-based observatories to include a guest user program, and the data from all the instruments have been subject to pipeline processing for the benefit of outside users and the convenience of participants. However, Columbia University scientists have developed their own software for processing the raw data from some of the instruments.
Columbia University.
Einstein Observatory (Artificial satellite)
Goddard Space Flight Center.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.
United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
High Energy Astronomy Observatories
Astrophysics.
Space sciences.
X-ray telescopes.
Group work in research.
American Institute of Physics. Center for History of Physics. Study of Multi-Institutional Collaborations. Phase II: Space Science and Geophysics.
American Science and Engineering, Inc.
Marshall Space Flight Center.
Boldt, Elihu
Clark, George W.
Dailey, Carroll.
Friedman, Herbert, 1916-2000
Giacconi, Riccardo.
Gorenstein, Paul.
Helfand, D. J. (David J.), 1950-
Holt, Stephen S.
Stuhlinger, Ernst, 1913-
Tananbaum, Harvey D.
American Institute of Physics) Center for History of Physics
Hamilton, Thomas.
Halpern, Richard E.
McDonald, Frank.
Murray, Stephen S.
Opp, Albert.
Spear, Fred.
AIP-ICOS
American Institute of Physics. Niels Bohr Library & Archives. One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA