Article ID: CBB427002398

Technology's Palette: Voyager's Eyes and the Hyperchromatic Enhancement of Jupiter and Saturn (October 2021)

unapi

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, NASA's Voyager mission offered the first clear pictures of Jupiter and Saturn. These images show the planets in strikingly brilliant, recognizably engineered, psychedelic colors: technology's palette. The use of color was justified on epistemological grounds; it made visible scientifically compelling features. But color palette also has a history, one that has not been previously considered. This article takes up this history and adds to the literature on the visual culture of science. It establishes that the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's pioneering role in digital image processing, the color conventions adopted for representing Earth, and American counterculture of the 1960s and its attitudes toward technology together created the conditions that allowed for hyperchromatic views of the planets. Technology's palette enhanced the scientific understanding of Jupiter and Saturn, while simultaneously celebrating technologically enhanced vision and the promise of seeing by means of human-machine collaborations.

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Authors & Contributors
Fu, Lee-Lueng
Mohammad Imam Hasan Reza
Elizabeth K. Marino
Themis G. Dallas
Rottner, Renee
Hallacher, Paul M.
Concepts
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Remote-sensing images
Space research and exploration
Technological innovation
Space travel; space flight
Satellites, artificial
Time Periods
20th century
21st century
20th century, late
Ancient
Places
United States
Illyricum
Malay; Malaysia
France
Alaska (U.S.)
India
Institutions
Project Voyager
Mars Exploration Rover Mission (U.S.)
United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
India Space Research Organization (ISRO)
Centre national de la recherche scientifique France (CNRS)
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
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