Digital Apollo

[Dave Monroe]

Digital Apollo
Human and Machine in Spaceflight
David A. Mindell

May 2008
7 x 9, 456 pp., 54 illus.
$29.95/£22.95 (CLOTH)
Trade

ISBN-10:0-262-13497-7
ISBN-13:978-0-262-13497-2

As Apollo 11's Lunar Module descended toward the moon under automatic
control, a program alarm in the guidance computer’s software nearly
caused a mission abort. Neil Armstrong responded by switching off the
automatic mode and taking direct control. He stopped monitoring the
computer and began flying the spacecraft, relying on skill to land it
and earning praise for a triumph of human over machine.

In Digital Apollo, engineer-historian David Mindell takes this famous
moment as a starting point for an exploration of the relationship
between humans and computers in the Apollo program. In each of the six
Apollo landings, the astronaut in command seized control from the
computer and landed with his hand on the stick. Mindell recounts the
story of astronauts' desire to control their spacecraft in parallel
with the history of the Apollo Guidance Computer. From the early days
of aviation through the birth of spaceflight, test pilots and
astronauts sought to be more than "spam in a can" despite the
automatic controls, digital computers, and software developed by
engineers. Digital Apollo examines the design and execution of each of
the six Apollo moon landings, drawing on transcripts and data
telemetry from the flights, astronaut interviews, and NASA's extensive
archives.

Mindell's exploration of how human pilots and automated systems worked
together to achieve the ultimate in flight—a lunar landing—traces and
reframes the debate over the future of humans and automation in space.
The results have implications for any venture in which human roles
seem threatened by automated systems, whether it is the work at our
desktops or the future of exploration.

http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11416

Table of Contents and Sample Chapters

http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11416&mode=toc

Digital Apollo:
Human and Machine in Spaceflight
by David A. Mindell
MIT Press, May 2008

http://web.mit.edu/digitalapollo/

Cf. ...

Schwarzgerät

252;"S-Gerät, 11/00000." 252;"Document SG-1" 252;"the one rocket out
of 6000 that carried the Imipolex G device" 292; for sale for .5M
francs by guy in Swinemünde who waits on Strand-Promenade until noon
daily, 294; "The Schwartzgerät is no Grail" 364; "They want the
Schwarzgerät." 455;"'F-Gerät, you sure of that?'" 487 details, 517;
mandala (KEZVH), 560, 563;"'. . . that was the name of the German who
commanded the battery that used the S-Gerät?'" 562;; 611; firing on
Lüneburg Heath, 667; 706; "00001, the second in its series" 724;
00001, 728; "SG-1" 736; "the assembly of the 00001 is occurring also
in a geographical way, a Diaspora running backwards" 737; as womb,
750; See also Rocket

http://www.thomaspynchon.com/gravitys-rainbow/alpha/s.html#schwarzgerat
http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=S