NASA-2 Electronic-Scene Generator Visual Frame Suite

This suite of photographic prints from 1971 were produced by NASA-2, also known as the Electronic-Scene Generator: a highly innovative computer system for generating real-time scenes in space shuttle simulations. Designed in 1965–67, NASA-2 was probably the first system to employ color-raster graphics, several years before the first public demos of the technology—a watershed moment in the development of computer graphics.

Engineers Rod Rougelot and Robert A. Schumacker led the team who built the system at General Electric in Syracuse before installing it at NASA’s space center in Houston. The hardware consisted of a Raytheon 520 host computer, with data pushed through digital-to-analog converters to produce the output. The generated scenes—views of runways, terrain, and target objects—were fed to a collimated window (a display system employed in flight simulators which uses a mirror to reflect images so that they are focused at infinity) in the space shuttle’s cruise-and-landing simulator. 

The images were generated at 30 frames per second, creating a real-time, full-color, “out-of-window” view for training pilots. The eight examples in this suite are from a NASA-2 press kit; a description and a copyright notice are printed on the verso. To create these visual assets, the computer-generated simulations were documented on 16mm color film. The circular vignettes are due to the use of the collimated display. 

The photographs are Kodak chromogenic prints on resin-coated photo paper, each measuring 8 by 10 inches. As images, these pixelated landscapes and floating forms can be connected to trends in art of the period – in particular, the visual language of hard-edge abstraction and Minimalism.

In a series of emails (through Alvy Ray Smith), Robert Schumacker reviewed and approved (with changes) the description of these works. He remembers the NASA-2 quite well, though isn't sure of the purpose of some of the satellite simulations.