[SIGCIS-Members] NASA contributions to computer development

Sat Aug 3 11:12:33 PDT 2019

I am reviving an old thread that had included Margaret Hamilton.

There was an absolutely extraordinary 1.4-square-mile portrait
<https://www.businessinsider.com/google-honors-apollo-11-margaret-hamilton-watch-video-2019-7>
of
NASA software developer Margaret Hamilton that used more than 107,000
mirrors from the Ivanpah Solar Facility in the Mojave Desert, a solar
thermal power plant in southern California.  Hamilton led the development
team responsible for programming the in-flight software for Apollo 11 and
all of NASA's manned Apollo missions. Hamilton, now 82, was awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama for her leadership in 2016.
She also became a Computer History Museum Fellow
<https://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/2017-chm-fellow-margaret-hamilton/> in
2017.
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On Fri, May 31, 2019 at 6:33 PM Jeffrey Yost <yostx003 at umn.edu> wrote:

> Certainly agree completely with Debbie about Paul and David's excellent
> books and their relevance to both development and use of computing and
> software systems at/for NASA.  Given Alex's excellent book on DARPA and the
> terrific book by Arthur Norberg and Judy O'Neil on earlier years of DARPA
> and "transforming" computing I guess I was thinking in the more limited way
> of how did NASA compare to DARPA and NSF in advancing computing through
> (especially) basic (but also applied) research in computer science (both
> internally and particularly funding programs)--in which NASA's RIACS, NASA
> HEC  Research Program are very important.  NASA's systems, often developed
> in conjunction with or wholly by major contractors, had a major impact on
> computing especially as onboard computing had many special needs with
> balancing performance, reliability and resilience, maintenance, space,
> weight, human operations...--understanding of which Paul and David's path
> breaking works greatly advance.  NASA had/has many contractual
> relationships with FFRDC's (and especially the one that tried to, and did,
> keep a low profile as they focused on R&D for our nuclear arsenal missile
> delivery systems, nonprofit Aerospace Corporation HQ'ed in El Segundo,
> which was as large and w/ as many Ph.D. scientists/engineers as nearby RAND
> in Santa Monica), with defense contractors for-profit aerospace firms like
> Lockheed and Raytheon (which built the Apollo Guidance Computer--Frank
> O'Brien wrote a quite technical book on the Apollo Guidance Computer's
> architecture and operating system published by Springer).  NASA also has a
> monograph series in collaboration with Springer on Systems and Software
> Engineering focused on NASA systems.  CBI's materials on the topic are
> extensive.  The Burroughs Corporation's  ATLAS Guidance Computer, was the
> guidance system for the ATLAS Missile at C.C., FL in 1958. We have the
> Burroughs Corp. records and material on this. The Federal Systems Divisions
> of IBM, Burroughs, Control Data (we have CDC Corp. Records) and the other
> major mainframe firms were frequent contractors for NASA (well documented
> in our archives).  This was not just for the computers, but programming
> services, systems integration, maintenance, and operations (NASA's Mission
> Control in Houston was heavily IBM System Engineers from its
> FSD--thoroughly documented in IBM Corporate Archives).  Control Data in
> particular had a bunch of important contracts with NASA in the 1960s and
> 1970s as a (and for a time THE) leading supercomputer firm.
>
> Best, Jeff
>
>
>
> Jeffrey R. Yost, Ph.D.
> Director, Charles Babbage Institute
> Research Professor, Program in the History of Science, Technology, and
> Medicine
>
> 222  21st Avenue South
> University of Minnesota
> Minneapolis, MN 55455
>
> 612 624 5050 Phone
> 612 625 8054 Fax
>
>
> On Fri, May 31, 2019 at 5:58 PM Deborah Douglas <ddouglas at mit.edu> wrote:
>
>> Colleagues,
>>
>> The first work should be Paul Ceruzzi’s “Beyond the Limits” which
>> explores the special relationship between aerospace and computing.  Over
>> the years, Paul has made many more contributions on this subject (including
>> a fine paper at the 2016 SHOT meeting in Singapore).  David Mindell’s
>> “Digital Apollo” does an excellent job capturing the story of the Apollo
>> Guidance Computer but as many know, this is hardly the only computer story
>> in the space program.  I would recommend Robert Ferguson’s “NASA’s First A”
>> as a good place to start as it includes a description of many projects,
>> most importantly the development of the structural analysis software
>> package NASTRAN.  (The book can be downloaded:
>> https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/files/NASAsFirstA-508-ebook.pdf
>> ).
>>
>> Debbie Douglas
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On May 31, 2019, at 5:49 PM, Jeffrey Yost <yostx003 at umn.edu> wrote:
>>
>>
>> NASA Ames has the RIACS the Research Institute for Advanced Computer
>> Science, its founding Director was esteemed computer scientist and past ACM
>> President Peter J. Denning (now a Prof. at Naval Post Graduate in
>> Monterey).  NASA Langley has computing research programs.  NASA has major
>> research programs funding government labs, FFRDCs, and university
>> researchers, in particular, its Program in High-End Computing
>> (HEC)/Supercomputing.  There are quite a number of hits to NASA in CBI
>> finding aids (hundreds) as well as CBI oral histories.
>>
>> Jeff
>>
>> Jeffrey R. Yost, Ph.D.
>> Director, Charles Babbage Institute
>> Research Professor, Program in the History of Science, Technology, and
>> Medicine
>>
>> 222  21st Avenue South
>> University of Minnesota
>> Minneapolis, MN 55455
>>
>> 612 624 5050 Phone
>> 612 625 8054 Fax
>>
>>
>> On Fri, May 31, 2019 at 4:08 PM Corinna Kirsch <
>> corinna.kirsch at stonybrook.edu> wrote:
>>
>>> Depending on the nature of the journalist's interest in "computer
>>> development," I'd suggest pointing the journalist in the direction of
>>> Margaret Hamilton and team's work on Apollo software. I'm not sure what
>>> type of interest the journalist has in "computer development": big
>>> machines, fast processors, virtual reality software, prototyping?
>>>
>>> http://news.mit.edu/2016/scene-at-mit-margaret-hamilton-apollo-code-0817
>>>
>>> http://wg18.criticalcodestudies.com/index.php?p=/discussion/17/week-1-gendering-the-apollo-11-onboard-in-flight-software
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> http://news.mit.edu/2016/scene-at-mit-margaret-hamilton-apollo-code-0817
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Corinna J. Kirsch
>>> PhD Candidate in Modern Art History, Criticism, and Theory
>>> <http://art.stonybrook.edu/person/corinna-kirsch-mcdonald/>
>>> Stony Brook University, State University of New York
>>> Phone: +1 (936) 697-1902
>>>
>>> [image: Stony Brook University logo]
>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, May 31, 2019 at 12:27 PM David C. Brock <dcb at dcbrock.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>> NASA was a sponsor of Englebart’s lab at SRI. NASA also funded work in
>>>> computer graphics and animation. NASA’s JPL is an important site in the
>>>> history of computer animation.
>>>>
>>>> Just a couple of quick thoughts...
>>>> +++++++++++++++
>>>> David C. Brock
>>>> dcb at dcbrock.net
>>>> 40 Russell Street, Greenfield, MA 01301
>>>> Mobile: 413-522-3578
>>>> Skype: dcbrock
>>>> Twitter: @dcbrock
>>>>
>>>> On May 31, 2019, at 1:48 PM, Alex Roland <alex.roland at duke.edu> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Friends:
>>>>
>>>>           I have been a passive member of SIGCIS for many years now,
>>>> even though I am no longer an active researcher in the field.  Still, I
>>>> follow your correspondence with great interest.  I am writing now because I
>>>> have received an inquiry from a reporter for the Wall Street Journal who is
>>>> interested in NASA’s historical contributions to computer development.  I
>>>> know from research on my book *Strategic Computing: DARPA and  the
>>>> Quest for Machine Intelligence, 1983-1993 *(2002) that NASA was
>>>> involved in the Federal High Performance Computing Program in the late
>>>> 1980s and early 1990s.  I do not, however, know of other significant
>>>> contributions by NASA to computer development.  If anyone knows of such
>>>> contributions, I would be happy to know about them.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,  Alex Roland
>>>>
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>>>
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>>
>> *Deborah G. Douglas, PhD *• Director of Collections and Curator of
>> Science and Technology, MIT Museum; Research Associate, Program in Science,
>> Technology, and Society • Room N51-209 • 265 Massachusetts Avenue •
>> Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 • ddouglas at mit.edu • 617-253-1766 telephone •
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>>
>>
>>
>>
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