The inspector-gadget arm sticking out of the space shuttle does look pretty funny https://www.usgs.gov/centers/eros/science/usgs-eros-archive-...

I don't think the arm was related to anything with intelligence- they just needed some way to have a second radar slightly moved away from the main one on the Shuttle. The further away it is, the more accurate they could measure elevation, so they stuck it way out on a pole.

But I think you're right that it's possibly one of the most widely used GIS datasets. Some applications obviously need finer resolution than 30 meters, and lidar is more accurate for the small areas that it can cover, but it's still cool that they could cover most of the globe at 30 meter resolution