[SIGCIS-Members] NASA contributions to computer development

Fri May 31 18:32:41 PDT 2019

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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> *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 •
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