Apollo 11 Had a Hidden Hero: Software

Post by kahirsch » Tue, Jul 16, 2019, 1:35 AM UTC

bumby wrote: post #26

a-wu wrote: post #13

I recently started listening to a fantastic podcast called 13 Minutes To The Moon[0] produced by the BBC. It’s a retelling of the last 13 minutes until the Apollo 11 lander touched down. Episode 2 talked about the software and the 1202 program code. They interviewed the Guidance controller who was only 26 at the time and talked about how the average age of the flight controllers was 27. I thought that was incredible,…

I wonder how much of the low age is because it was a relatively new organization at the time. As a counter example, NASA's current average age is 50+ in many organizations. It's a blessing and a curse. Aging organizations retain lots of organizational knowledge but also tend to exhibit a lot of stagnation/complacency.

Post by Zanneth » Tue, Jul 16, 2019, 3:32 AM UTC

Post by sytelus » Tue, Jul 16, 2019, 10:43 AM UTC

elteto wrote: post #27

This contains more technical information behind the 1202 alarms [0]. It is an awesome read. [0] https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11.1201-pa.html

Post by bronson » Tue, Jul 16, 2019, 8:04 PM UTC

bumby wrote: post #46

bronson wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's not really any debate. The MAX ignored very basic controls lessons that were learned and institutionalized, as you say, over 50 years ago.

I agree that the 737-MAX wasn't a good example. My limited understanding in a broader sense (as opposed to the specific 737-MAX case) is there is still considerable debate on who should have ultimate control (human or software) of the aircraft when making critical decisions. I remember reading an article a while back that made it seem like Boeing and Airbus were on different sides of this spectrum in basic design phi…

Post by zeristor » Wed, Jul 17, 2019, 11:28 AM UTC

kahirsch wrote: post #51

bumby wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how much of the low age is because it was a relatively new organization at the time. As a counter example, NASA's current average age is 50+ in many organizations. It's a blessing and a curse. Aging organizations retain lots of organizational knowledge but also tend to exhibit a lot of stagnation/complacency.

Yes, the podcast attributed it to NASA being a new organization and there being nobody with experience in most of the jobs. There were aircraft engineers and a small number of rocket engineers before, but NASA needed vast numbers of new employees and for jobs like mission control that just didn't exist before.