Apollo 11 Had a Hidden Hero: Software
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Re: Apollo 11 Had a Hidden Hero: Software
#2CuriousMarc's Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) restoration is a must-watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KSahAoOLdU&list=PL-_93BVApb...
Re: Apollo 11 Had a Hidden Hero: Software
#3I knew a retired couple near where I lived growing up who, I found out later, were software programmers on the Apollo Program. Quite possibly worked in that lab. The husband passed away soon afterwards, and I never got around to asking the wife about her experiences (they both worked for the program!). But it was really cool reading about how the core software was written.
Re: Apollo 11 Had a Hidden Hero: Software
#4> MIT received the first major Apollo contract, the only one awarded to a university, and the only one given without competitive bidding.
Do these kinds of mission-critical components generally go to the lowest bidder?
Re: Apollo 11 Had a Hidden Hero: Software
#5> MIT received the first major Apollo contract, the only one awarded to a university, and the only one given without competitive bidding. Do these kinds of mission-critical components generally go to the lowest bidder?
Competitive bid doesn't have to mean lowest bidder. I've put tons of (non-government) projects out for bid because you're usually expected to do so to keep everyone relatively honest. I imagine the MIT Instrumentation Lab were the only people with the inertial guidance expertise at that time.
Re: Apollo 11 Had a Hidden Hero: Software
#6> MIT received the first major Apollo contract, the only one awarded to a university, and the only one given without competitive bidding. Do these kinds of mission-critical components generally go to the lowest bidder?
I think bidding government contracts is a lot more complicated than just picking the cheapest option. There's a lot of other dimensions of validation that bids move through other than cost.
For something like this, I'm sure there is stringent engineering validation. I know some initial NN research was part of a larger government project of funding research around stabilizing missiles in flight for ICBMs that was not cheap.
Re: Apollo 11 Had a Hidden Hero: Software
#7Love the code comments referenced in the article
Re: Apollo 11 Had a Hidden Hero: Software
#8There is a good book on the computer systems of Apollo project: Digital Apollo https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/digital-apollo
It describes interesting questions that were faced on the project: say, how much control over a lunar module could be given to a computer system, and how much they should rely on human engagement.
Re: Apollo 11 Had a Hidden Hero: Software
#9> MIT received the first major Apollo contract, the only one awarded to a university, and the only one given without competitive bidding. Do these kinds of mission-critical components generally go to the lowest bidder?
Re: Apollo 11 Had a Hidden Hero: Software
#10> MIT received the first major Apollo contract, the only one awarded to a university, and the only one given without competitive bidding. Do these kinds of mission-critical components generally go to the lowest bidder?
MIT was probably most knowledgeable about programming computers back then that anywhere else in the world.