Andrew Butrica's picture

Real name: 

Primary Discipline

Primary Discipline: 

  • Old HierarchyHistoryEarly Modern Europe

Further Specification: 

History of Science and Technology
Secondary Discipline

Secondary Discipline: 

  • Old HierarchyHistoryUnited States

Biography: 

I have worked as a historian—researching and writing—for NASA and the Department of Defense since 1992. Now I am looking to expand into new areas of research and writing. I also have a good deal of experience editing and preparing manuscripts for publication. I recently self-published (at NASA’s request) a POD book, including the proofreading, layout, and cover design. Je cherche aussi des contrats à courte durée pour la traduction en anglais des textes français. Plus récemment, j’ai traduis des pages d’Internet sur l’histoire de l’éléctricité pour le CNRS.

Current research areas: 

Currently, I am researching and writing a history of French industrial policy--industrial nationalism--through the lens of the Societe d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale, founded in 1801 by a bureau of the interior ministry to carry out its work on a largeer scale. The book covers the period 1801 to 1851, the year of the London Crystal Palace exposition, the first international industrial exposition. I am using large-scale databases drawn from various sources to describe the industrial policy implemented by the Societe d'encouragement. I focus in particular on those aspects of industrialization that made the French case unique, or at least different from that of the British example. My study adds to the literature in several ways by integrating a handful of factors into this growing historiography. In delineating France’s peculiar route, the analysis focuses on two salient features: 1) the pursuit of humanitarian technological improvements aimed at assuaging the needs of poor urban artists and workers and rural families; 2) and the creation of new industries, especially those based on the exploitation of large-scale agriculture. Integral to the latter was an industrialization process that included transformations in long-standing agricultural practices and a philosophy (in the words of its advocates) of putting “the factory on the farm.” Other no less enduring themes include the impact of high fuel costs on technological innovation, infrastructure (especially transportation systems and networks) as an integral part of industrialization, and the role of science and scientists in industrial development.

Recent scholarly activity: 

I recently read papers at the joint meeting of the British and European history of science societies in London and at the annual meeting of ICOHTEC (International Committee for the History of Technology) in St-Etienne, France. My latest publication is: "The Mind's Eye: Technical Education, Drawing, and Meritocracy in France, 1800-1850," ICON: Journal of the International Committee for the History of Technology (ICOHTEC), 21 (2015): 1-23.

Recent publications: 

The Navigators, my contact history of NASA's deep-space navigation over the past half century, is now in print and available from Amazon.
This is the story behind NASA's successful exploration of the solar system. For a half century, NASA has sent one probe after another into space, achieving scientific and technological successes along the way and adding to humanity's knowledge of the solar system. NASA has reaped these great rewards thanks to a small investment in deep-space navigation. With rare exceptions, navigation's great achievements-and scientific accomplishments-have gone unobserved. The failures of the Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander shed navigation in a negative light, yet the indispensable role of navigators behind NASA's many successes over the past half century has not come to light-until now. The institutional home of deep-space navigation is the NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. JPL navigation originated long before it became part of NASA, when the lab developed and tested missiles for the nation's military space effort. From the start, deep-space navigation was an endeavor built on science and mathematics and dependent on the Deep Space Network for tracking spacecraft and on digital computers and software for processing data. Navigation is multidisciplinary. It involves astronomy and radio astronomy, geodesy and geophysics, cartography and meteorology, ionospheric physics and radio science. Navigators interact with a panoply of institutions, whether the Bureau International de l'Heure, the International Polar Motion Service, the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, and the International Astronomical Union. JPL navigation started as a consumer of Naval Observatory data, practices, and ephemerides, but in the 1970s became the source of ephemerides, constants, models, and ephemerides for the world's almanac offices. Navigators have been project scientists on many NASA missions, performing experiments in celestial mechanics and gravitational fields, undertaking radio occultations, and testing Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. They also have made a number of memorable scientific discoveries: mascons on the Moon and Mars, volcanism on Io, and over a dozen satellites of the outer planets. The nature of deep-space navigation began to change with the introduction of optical navigation, which uses a probes science camera and telemetry to determine its position relative to a planet, moon, or asteroid. Deep-space navigation began-and remains-an activity carried out entirely on Earth. Radio signals from the Deep Space Network constituted the only information processed. Optical navigation began to move some of the process-and equipment-to spacecraft. At first, image processing was a labor-intensive and computer-intensive effort. Software improvements and advances in spacecraft computers paved the way for autonomous navigation, which transferred many basic navigation processes to the onboard computer: estimating trajectories, planning and executing imaging, and analyzing pictures. The most recent evolutionary stage has been the merger of this autonomous software with spacecraft guidance and control functions.

Forthcoming research: 

Currently, I am researching and writing a history of French industrial policy--industrial nationalism--through the lens of the Societe d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale, founded in 1801 by a bureau of the interior ministry to carry out its work on a largeer scale. The book covers the period 1801 to 1851, the year of the London Crystal Palace exposition, the first international industrial exposition. I am using large-scale databases drawn from various sources to describe the industrial policy implemented by the Societe d'encouragement. I focus in particular on those aspects of industrialization that made the French case unique, or at least different from that of the British example. My study adds to the literature in several ways by integrating a handful of factors into this growing historiography. In delineating France’s peculiar route, the analysis focuses on two salient features: 1) the pursuit of humanitarian technological improvements aimed at assuaging the needs of poor urban artists and workers and rural families; 2) and the creation of new industries, especially those based on the exploitation of large-scale agriculture. Integral to the latter was an industrialization process that included transformations in long-standing agricultural practices and a philosophy (in the words of its advocates) of putting “the factory on the farm.” Other no less enduring themes include the impact of high fuel costs on technological innovation, infrastructure (especially transportation systems and networks) as an integral part of industrialization, and the role of science and scientists in industrial development.

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