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Digital Apollo: Human and Machine in Spaceflight (The MIT Press), by David A. Mindell
Ebook Digital Apollo: Human and Machine in Spaceflight (The MIT Press), by David A. Mindell
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Review
[A] wealth of research that even the most informed space fans can enjoy. Mindell avoids the temptation to glorify the space program, instead dealing with the nitty gritty logistics involved in getting a man to the moon. Digital Apollo succeeds in providing an inside track to one of the most difficult technological challenges of the 20th century.―James Thorne, coolhunting.com (2008-01-01)Mindell joyfully plumbs the deep history of Apollo's decade-long clash between the MIT eggheads who built the computers and the thrill-jockey military test pilots who used them.―IEEE Spectrum (2008-01-01)The book is a refreshing reminder that it is still possible to uncover new stories about the early years of the American space program.―Dwayne A. Day, Air & Space
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Review
Digital Apollo is an excellent and unique historical account of the lengthy, and often pitched struggle of designers, engineers, and pilots to successfully integrate man and complex computer systems for the Apollo lunar landings. It brings back fond memories.―Edgar Mitchell, Sc.D.; Captain, USN (retired) Lunar Module Pilot, Apollo 14Mindell's well-written book deals with a terribly important and often overlooked aspect of space age technology. Commentators often present space exploration in the form of a two-sided debate, where advocates of robotics confront advocates of human flight. As Mindell adroitly demonstrates, the engineers who designed the spacecraft that actually flew to the Moon created by necessity a third position, fashioning a practical solution that stood in between the astronaut as automaton and the astronaut as a pilot fully in control. This is a 'must read' book for anyone seriously interested in understanding how space flight really works.―Howard E. McCurdy, author of Faster, Better, CheaperDavid Mindell's very important and accessible book precisely dissects Apollo history, proving Apollo a harbinger of our current digital era.―Charles Simonyi , President and CEO, Intentional Software, and Participant, Soyuz TMA-10 Mission to the International Space Station, April 2007Digital Apollo takes the reader on a wild ride following the impact of the increasingly complex world of data processing, control, and display on space flight. The book traces the evolution of man's role aboard high speed aircraft, the hybrid X-15, and ultimately space flight, and the lunar landing. This book is fascinating history and an important resource for future space explorers.―Robert C. Seamans, Jr., Former Deputy Administrator, NASA
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Product details
Series: The MIT Press
Paperback: 376 pages
Publisher: The MIT Press; Reprint edition (September 30, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9780262516105
ISBN-13: 978-0262516105
ASIN: 0262516101
Product Dimensions:
7 x 0.9 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.5 out of 5 stars
61 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#418,431 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
I had to read this book for a seminar I'm taking. It is an excellent work that gives a systems-level overview of the Apollo Missions, particularly focusing a large amount on the relationship between the astronauts and the Apollo Guidance Computer. In the process it also lightly touches upon the broader challenges of incorporating both humans and computers into functional control loops, which is something Mindell has considerable experience in.Several reviewers have pointed out that they were disappointed that the book doesn't go into more detail on certain topics, and I have to admit that when reading the section on transitioning the AGC from transistor-based to integrated circuits construction (an area I'm particularly fascinated by), I was also left wanting more. However, Mindell's goal in writing this book was not to nerd-out on particular details but rather to analyze things from a higher, systems-level view, something which I think is a challenging thing to do when there are so many fascinating things to explore in detail. So, if you want the fine details of how the AGC worked including the core rope memory, there are other works available, but if you want to see an excellent analysis of human-machine interaction, "Digital Apollo" is a good choice.
This book is not a casual read unless you are a driven reader of space histories (I am). It does however fill a huge gap in available literature about the Apollo Guidance Computer. It is very detailed yet flows well, and is narrative enough to not feel like a dry treatise. But you'd best be pretty interested in the topic, because the author assumes this and does not look back once he gets going... as should be the case.The book details the development of the AGC and its precursors from the beginning onward, spending lots of time at both NASA and the MIT lab. The details are specific and the storytelling clear and generally compelling. He covers both the technical details and the political, managerial and engineering drivers and decisions that brought about the ACG as we know it today.If you want to know how Apollo could fly to the moon, land there and come home on roughly 36k of program memory and 2k of RAM, this book will, finally, tell you how.
You might think a book entitled "Digital Apollo" would be about the development, programming and operation of the digital computers in the Apollo Command (CM) and Lunar (LM) Modules. You would be partially right. About half of Dr. David Mindell's superb volume covers those subjects, very readably and in great detail. But the book's scope is far broader than that. It is really nothing less than a comprehensive examination of the relationships between humans and machines from the earliest days of aviation, through the X-15, Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle eras, and into the future of spaceflight.It's a fascinating story that has not, to my knowledge, previously been told in any depth. The evolution of the Apollo computer hardware and software occurred in parallel with the evolution of the attitudes of steely eyed NASA astronauts, who fought hard to avoid relinquishing any control to machines. All the early astronauts were test pilots--their hard-won experiences with primitive vacuum-tube systems in aircraft had convinced them that "electronics always fail." Thus they opposed NASA's decision, mandated by the complexity of lunar missions, to depend largely on new-fangled transistorized digital computers to help them fly the Apollo spacecraft. At one time, in those days before "fly-by-wire" control systems, some Apollo astronauts wanted actual cables connecting a conventional aircraft-type stick with the CM's attitude control rocket motors. That didn't happen. They feared that computer failures would jeopardize their missions and perhaps cost them their lives. That also didn't happen. To find out what DID happen, there's no better source than "Digital Apollo."Dr. Mindell says his book "...tells the story of the relationship between human and machine in the Apollo project and how that relationship shaped the experience and the technology of flying to the moon. It is a story of human pilots, of automated systems, and of the two working together to achieve the ultimate in flight. It is also a story of public imagery, professional identities and social relationships among engineers, pilots, flight controllers and many others, each with their own visions of spaceflight." That's a good summary, but I'd like to add to it. First, words like "social relationships" and "working together" and "visions" should not deter technophiles from reading "Digital Apollo." Those subjects are all in there, but much of the book is at the down-and-dirty technical level of bits and bytes and magnetic core memories and DSKYs and other esoterica. Dr. Mindell superbly integrates the human and computer stories in a way that almost anyone should find interesting. Second, "Digital Apollo" is one of the best-written spaceflight books I've read in years. Its tone is brisk and conversational, but the information it contains is deep, broad and very well-explained. You don't have to be a space cadet to enjoy it. It is also exceptionally accurate. I came across only a few minor errors in the parts of the story that I know, such as calling a metal alloy used in the X-15 "Iconel-X" rather than "Inconel-X" (the alloy and the name came from the International Nickel Company, hence "Inco")."Digital Apollo" fills a niche in the history of technology and spaceflight in a most outstanding way. It reminds me a little of Tracy Kidder's "The Soul of A New Machine," and that is high praise indeed. Even if you think you know Apollo, you should read it. You're sure to learn a lot, and be entertained in the process. I recommend it most highly.
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