Digital Apollo, Human and Machine in Spaceflight
- GuardianAsher
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- Location: Lubbock, TX
- FlyingPenguin
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I just re-read this book in Kindle form. For any of you who never got a chance to read the physical book we passed around, I can highly recommend it. It really gives you an appreciation for how radical and important the concept of using a digital computer was on Apollo. I doubt we could have made it to the moon using the original Gemini-type analog feedback loops.
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Apollo-Hu ... tal+apollo
The Apollo Block II computer and DSKY display/keyboard
Rope memory used as ROM on the Apollo computer:
Professional seamstresses were used to weave the rope memory - each one custom weaved with custom programs for each mission. The ROM software had to be finalized 4 months before launch to allow enough time for manufacture, testing & installation. Originally they were all made by hand but later on the manufacture was semi-automated: the program was coded onto paper tape and the machine the woman is working at would read the tape and line up a threading hole for each successive wire in the proper location that the woman would push through with a needle. The paper tape reader is on the right next to the machine:
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Apollo-Hu ... tal+apollo
The Apollo Block II computer and DSKY display/keyboard
Rope memory used as ROM on the Apollo computer:
Professional seamstresses were used to weave the rope memory - each one custom weaved with custom programs for each mission. The ROM software had to be finalized 4 months before launch to allow enough time for manufacture, testing & installation. Originally they were all made by hand but later on the manufacture was semi-automated: the program was coded onto paper tape and the machine the woman is working at would read the tape and line up a threading hole for each successive wire in the proper location that the woman would push through with a needle. The paper tape reader is on the right next to the machine:
Christians warn us about the anti-christ for 2,000 years, and when he shows up, they buy a bible from him.
- GuardianAsher
- Golden Member
- Posts: 1102
- Joined: Mon Aug 01, 2005 12:30 am
- Location: Lubbock, TX