Every decade or so a new technological breakthrough will come up, one that often fascinates our collective imagination. The year 1961 launched one of these collective dreams, one in which humanity could break through the outermost layers of our stratosphere and have human bodies (as well as dogs and monkeys), whimsically facing the lack of our planet’s gravitational pull. That was the one of the very first milestones in the space race, which culminated in the Apollo 11 moon landing in July of 1969.
Human fascination with space rocket technology then filled our collective imagination and spread out to consumer goods as the aesthetics of Space Age futurism were designed into household appliances, architecture, and cars in order to create the impression of technological advancement. Panasonic was one of the many companies that took advantage of this aesthetic.
In 1966, Panasonic launched the TR-005, also known as the Orbitel. A five-inch CRT screen encased by two silver plastic hemispheres, the Orbitel was designed to look Space Age, resembling an astronaut helmet or an alien spaceship. It was built using cutting edge “solid state” technology, which meant that its futuristic case was filled with circuit boards instead of the more, at the time, common nixie/vacuum tubes. In its ads, Panasonic would boast that the TV would not need to be “warmed up” before a bright, greyscale, clear image would form on its CRT screen.
While not currently located in our lab, you can still view this dreamy television set sitting proudly in one of our display cabinets at the ATEC building.
– Originally written by Murilo Paiva Homsi.
