Digital Apollo: Human and Machine in Spaceflight
by David A. Mindell
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Book Summary Information
Author: David A. MindellEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-05-31
ISBN: 0262134977
Number of pages: 456
Publisher: MIT Press
Book Reviews of Digital Apollo: Human and Machine in Spaceflight
Book Review: Not As Much As I Expected
Summary: 3 Stars
I watched all the Apollo missions as a teenager and was fascinated by the technology involved. When I read the description of this book and the other reviews, I thought this would be a fairly intimate description of how the computers worked in the LM and CM. I was hoping for details like how a computer could do the calculations it did using so little capacity. I wanted to learn all about the things the computers could do and how they were applied to phases of the mission: Walk me through the hardware and software. Instead,I got some of that, but not nearly as much as I had hoped for.
There was enough information about some of the programs, such as the landing program, that I have the impression that none of this is classified, so I don't understand why an "A to Z" book on the topic couldn't have been written. The real references to the software and hardware, unfortunately, seem mostly to be in support of the book's primary theme about the issue of man vs. computer as the controller of a spacecraft or aircraft. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I found the descriptions of the Instumentation Lab and its people to be somewhat superficial. Having read the book, I have no clear picture of how the IL's people did their daily work or even how the facility was arranged. This sort of stuff would have interested me and, I suspect, many others.
Digital Apollo isn't an offering in the spirit of "Virtual Apollo", applied to the computer systems. It gives you sips of that, but not nearly a glassful.
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