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Hamilton had possibly the most exciting and demanding job ever in computer science and engineering. It must have been so much fun. About as full stack as it get

Hamilton had possibly the most exciting and demanding job ever in computer science and engineering. It must have been so much fun. About as full stack as it gets. Bletchley Park and the Manhattan project were great computing projects too, but Apollo is my favorite since they had such a tiny mass and power budget, real time constraints and the runtime consequences were so personal. Damn that was a great project. Hopper was a giant of course. But Hamilton is less well known and I've been a fan since my youth.

ArkyBeagle 10y ago
I actually get choked up watching the appropriate episode of "Moon Machines", the one that covers the MIT team. That project was an 0xCF. But it worked. I was 9 when the moon lander landed, but I was still old enough to feel the Sputnik emphasis in tech. I grew up with that program. It was the era of EE programs with 50% washout rates. We would go to Huntsville, Houston or Cape Kennedy on vacation. It was just like that then. I don't know how anybody could have survived the first real test of a system like that being on national TV. That's the stuff of nervous breakdowns. Ad then by '74 we killed it because nobody knew any economics back then. Or maybe because they did. I want a Mad Men style show about the Apollo program. Oh, why not? Why not?
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  > Ad then by '74 we killed it because nobody knew any economics back then. Or maybe because they did. Probably the latter. By the time Apollo astronauts landed on the Moon, von Braun and friends were sketching plans for a Mars mission, and pushing for development of nuclear propulsion. According to Wikipedia[0], US Congress saw that and decided to kill the space race, out of fear it will expand beyond the Moon, and consume resources needed elsewhere (like for the arms race). [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NERVA#In_the_space_program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NERVA#In_the_space_program
  - vanderZwan 10y ago
    > (like for the arms race) Well, that turned out to be more of a perceived than actual need.
- dominotw 10y ago
  >I actually get choked up watching the appropriate episode of "Moon Machines", the one that covers the MIT team. Watched this amazing episode on youtube couple of months ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YA7X5we8ng https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YA7X5we8ng Truly mind boggling achievement.
pjmorris 10y ago
'Apollo', Charles Murray and Catherine Cox [0] is a terrific book about the engineering and project management of the Apollo program. They don't talk about the software much (if anyone has a suggestion, I'd like to hear it), but there are a ton of great back stories about the technology, planning, and management of the program that led to July 20, 1969. [0] https://www.amazon.com/Apollo-Charles-Murray/dp/0976000806 https://www.amazon.com/Apollo-Charles-Murray/dp/0976000806
- groovy2shoes 10y ago
  I suggest reading the actual sources for the software: https://github.com/chrislgarry/Apollo-11/ https://github.com/chrislgarry/Apollo-11/ :)
nickpsecurity 10y ago
Oh yeah. It had to be awesome to have so much freedom, responsibility, talent, and ability to explore new things. She said about as much in the Lessons from Apollo paper here [which is actually about her systems language]: http://htius.com/Articles/r12ham.pdf http://htius.com/Articles/r12ham.pdf "Apollo was the ideal environment for jump starting a "never-in-the-box" technology. There was no school to attend or field to learn what today is known as "software engineering." When there were no answers to be found, at time we just had to make it up, and we had to design things to work the first time."

ArkyBeagle 10y ago

I actually get choked up watching the appropriate episode of "Moon Machines", the one that covers the MIT team. That project was an 0xCF. But it worked. I was 9 when the moon lander landed, but I was still old enough to feel the Sputnik emphasis in tech. I grew up with that program. It was the era of EE programs with 50% washout rates. We would go to Huntsville, Houston or Cape Kennedy on vacation. It was just like that then. I don't know how anybody could have survived the first real test of a system like that being on national TV. That's the stuff of nervous breakdowns. Ad then by '74 we killed it because nobody knew any economics back then. Or maybe because they did. I want a Mad Men style show about the Apollo program. Oh, why not? Why not?

TeMPOraL 10y ago
> Ad then by '74 we killed it because nobody knew any economics back then. Or maybe because they did. Probably the latter. By the time Apollo astronauts landed on the Moon, von Braun and friends were sketching plans for a Mars mission, and pushing for development of nuclear propulsion. According to Wikipedia[0], US Congress saw that and decided to kill the space race, out of fear it will expand beyond the Moon, and consume resources needed elsewhere (like for the arms race). [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NERVA#In_the_space_program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NERVA#In_the_space_program
- vanderZwan 10y ago
  > (like for the arms race) Well, that turned out to be more of a perceived than actual need.
dominotw 10y ago
>I actually get choked up watching the appropriate episode of "Moon Machines", the one that covers the MIT team. Watched this amazing episode on youtube couple of months ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YA7X5we8ng https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YA7X5we8ng Truly mind boggling achievement.

pjmorris 10y ago

'Apollo', Charles Murray and Catherine Cox [0] is a terrific book about the engineering and project management of the Apollo program. They don't talk about the software much (if anyone has a suggestion, I'd like to hear it), but there are a ton of great back stories about the technology, planning, and management of the program that led to July 20, 1969. [0] https://www.amazon.com/Apollo-Charles-Murray/dp/0976000806 https://www.amazon.com/Apollo-Charles-Murray/dp/0976000806

groovy2shoes 10y ago
I suggest reading the actual sources for the software: https://github.com/chrislgarry/Apollo-11/ https://github.com/chrislgarry/Apollo-11/ :)

nickpsecurity 10y ago

Oh yeah. It had to be awesome to have so much freedom, responsibility, talent, and ability to explore new things. She said about as much in the Lessons from Apollo paper here [which is actually about her systems language]: http://htius.com/Articles/r12ham.pdf http://htius.com/Articles/r12ham.pdf "Apollo was the ideal environment for jump starting a "never-in-the-box" technology. There was no school to attend or field to learn what today is known as "software engineering." When there were no answers to be found, at time we just had to make it up, and we had to design things to work the first time."