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HOME REVIEWS CONTACT ABOUT March 14,
2009
The Hughes Corporation’s Contribution to the Development of Space
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In
Martin Scorsese's movie, The Aviator,
the life of Howard Hughes was fully
glamorized. The company he founded,
Hughes Aircraft, and later Hughes Space
and
Communications, was obviously
noteworthy. These companies built
airplanes,
helicopters, missiles, radar
systems,
satellites, and interplanetary
exploration
vehicles. The company
built the
first working laser, aircraft
computer
systems, and ion-propulsion
engines.
In 2000,
Hughes sold it Space and
Communications
divisions to Boeing,
and in
2003, Hughes sold controlling
interest
(39%) in DirecTV to News
Corporation/Fox
Broadcasting
(Rupert
Murdoch).
Notable
Achievements:
Syncom (1963): Hughes built the world's first geosynchronous
communications satellite, Syncom 2 ("synchronous
communication satellite"). Syncom 1 was to be the first geosynchronous communications
satellite. but was lost due to an electronics
failure. The Syncom
satellites weighed 86 pounds.
ATS
(1966-1969): Hughes built the world's first geosynchronous
weather satellites, ATS. The ATS
satellites conducted experiments in communications and meteorology. An ATS
satellite produced the first color picture showing a view of our planet from
space.
Surveyor
(1966): Hughes built 5 Surveyor systems,
robotic spacecraft used as pathfinders, These spacecraft provided the first
soft landings on the Moon as a prelude to the Apollo missions. Each spacecraft was about 10 feet tall, 14
feet in width, and weighed about 2300 pounds.
A total of 7 Surveyor systems were sent to the moon. Five made successful landings. Apollo 12
later landed about 400 meters from the landing site of Surveyor 3, and astronauts
retrieved parts of it to determine the effects of long exposure to the lunar
environment.
Pioneer (1978): Hughes built Pioneer Venus, which performed
radar mapping of Venus until its demise in 1992. The mission,
scheduled to last 243 days, instead lasted 14 years. The Pioneer mission to Venus consisted of two
modules, launched separately, Pioneer Venus Orbiter (the "mother"
craft) and Pioneer Venus Multiprobe. The single multiprobe
spacecraft divided into four separate probes, one large probe, and three small
probes. In total, the five spacecraft
contained 18 scientific instruments. The
probes all functioned perfectly, transmitting data through their descent. One
probe survived impact and continued to transmit valuable data from the planet's
surface for more than an hour.
LEASAT
(1984-1990): Hughes built the LEASAT satellite system that
was launched in the 1980's that formed a global military communications
network. The 5 Intelsat satellites were
called Syncom IV-1 to Syncom
IV-5 (also called LEASAT, short for "Leased Satellites"). These satellites weighed more than 1500
pounds each. The LEASAT satellites were
the first satellites specifically designed for launch by the Space
Shuttle. Users include mobile air,
surface ships, submarines, and fixed earth stations of the Navy, Marine Corps,
Air Force, and Army.
DirecTV
(1994): Hughes pioneered direct broadcast satellite
(DBS) service for delivering television programming directly to the consumer,
launching service in 1994. The new
technologies needed to provide this service included very high power satellite
transmission and digital video compression (CDV). CDV reduces the signal bandwidth requirements
of a TV signal to enable its transmission via the Internet, DVD, cable, or
satellite. This is necessary because an
uncompressed video signal is very large.
The high definition signal (HDTV) is much larger than standard
definition files. DirecTV has
approximately 17 million customers in the
Galileo
(1995): Hughes built the Galileo probe that studied
Jupiter in the 1995-1997. The spacecraft
studied the planet, its moons, orbital rings and the planet's magnetic field. As a part of the program, Galileo released a
probe that entered the planet's atmosphere for detailed study. The probe survived entry speeds of over
106,000 MPH, extreme temperatures more than twice the temperature of the surface
of the Sun, and deceleration forces up to 230 G's. The probe relayed data
obtained during its 57 minute descent mission back to the Galileo orbiter for
transmission back to Earth.
As of
the year 2000, the company had built approximately 40 percent of commercial
satellites in service worldwide. Much of
the current interplanetary exploration, and communication satellite industry,
has been built on the foundation laid by the Hughes Corporation.