SUBS17 wrote:scaber wrote:SUBS17 wrote: The Movie about some women doing calculations is fiction because the only people on the planet with the knowledge and expertise were the very men sent to the moon. .
Completely untrue, you've just insulted a heap of mathematicians, and these woman who you dismiss so quickly were the ones doing the calculations that we would use computers to do. I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt with your willingness to so readily dismiss the role of these women in the journey to the moon. During the flight, particularly when the astronauts flew behind the moon, these women were on stand by to carry out the necessary calculations if the orbit was wrong due to an early, late or wrong length burn. I'm sure that the astronauts would also have undertaken training in celestial mechanics so they could perform the required calculations in an emergency but this wasn't the primary source of the orbital information required to travel to the moon and back.
You are welcome to your opinion, but don't be surprised when others disagree. Please be more gracious in accepting other view points.
Do not take a fictional story as being true, calculations were done on a board at NASA. There were some ladies working there, none were involved at all in those calculations. You can see in the movie Apollo 13 a sample of what it was like for them to pilot the Command module and the Eagle.
Some amusing reading, of the topic postings which reminds me of the infamous phrase an "Alternative facts" presentation.
"The Movie about some women doing calculations" which you refer to is called "
Hidden Figures "
It is a 2016 American biographical drama film that is a loosely based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly about African American female mathematicians who worked at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) during the early Space Race years.
The film, set at NASA Langley Research Center in 1961, depicts segregated facilities such as the West Area Computing unit, where an all-black group of female mathematicians were originally required to check and re-check data input calculations using the
Card-Programmed Electronic Calculator (CPC) while being segregated from White Collar Class American Males and Females, the African American female mathematicians where required to use separate dining and bathroom facilities.
It was to do with NASA's Project Mercury which was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Union.
This movie is primarily about 3 African American female mathematicians
Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson who performed the calculations for the Project Mercury program that allowed the United States of America to enter the space race and place a man into space, this is the precursor to the Apollo Lunar landing program.
John Herschel Glenn Jr. (Born July 18, 1921 – Died December 8, 2016) was a United States Marine Corps aviator, engineer, astronaut, businessman, and politician.
He was one of the Mercury Seven depicted in the 1983 American epic historical drama film "The Right Stuff". It was adapted from Tom Wolfe's best-selling 1979 book of the same name about the Navy, Marine and Air Force test pilots who were involved in aeronautical research at Edwards Air Force Base, California, as well as the Mercury Seven, the seven military pilots who were selected to be the astronauts for Project Mercury, the first manned spaceflight by the United States
The test pilots were selected in 1959 by NASA as the nation's first astronauts. On February 20, 1962, John Glenn flew the Friendship 7 mission, becoming the first American to orbit the Earth, circling it three times in 1962 making him the fifth person and third American in space.
In 1964 at 42, John Glenn was the oldest member of the astronaut corps and would likely be close to 50 by the time the lunar landings took place. During Glenn's training, NASA psychologists determined that he was the astronaut best suited for public life.
It seemed unlikely that he would be selected for Project Apollo missions, so he resigned from NASA on January 16, 1964, and announced his Democratic Party candidacy for the U.S. Senate from his home state of Ohio the following day. John Glenn was still a Marine, and had plenty of unused leave time. He elected to use it while he waited out for his retirement papers to go through.
In late February he was hospitalized for a concussion sustained in a fall against a bathtub while attempting to fix a mirror in a hotel room; an inner-ear injury from the accident left him unable to campaign. He withdrew from the race on March 30. Both his wife and Scott Carpenter campaigned on his behalf during February and March, but doctors gave Glenn a recovery time of one year. Glenn did not want to win solely due to his astronaut fame, so he dropped out of the race on March 30.
Following his retirement from NASA, he later served from 1974 to 1999 as a Democratic United States Senator from Ohio.
serving 24 years, until January 1999. In 1998, while still a sitting senator, Glenn flew on the Discovery space shuttle's STS-95 mission, making him the oldest person to fly in space and the only person to fly in both the Mercury and Space Shuttle programs.
As far as I'm aware
John Glenn had no involvement in the Apollo lunar landing program and the so called previous postings can only be described as being a representation of "Alternative facts" for the calculations of the Apollo program.From the NASA history website
Project Apollo: A Retrospective AnalysisAs an ex IBM'er in New Zealand, here are some interesting IBM facts.
IBM and Space flight chronologyIBM and the Gemini ProgramIBM and the Saturn guidance computerCalculations of the Apollo lunar landing program was an entire NASA Apollo program team effort, including the astronauts with both real time data input and onboard Apollo hardware computers. In combination with the computing power of the time with IBM's involvement using the IBM 7094-11 computers and later IBM System/360 Model 75J mainframes, for the
Real-Time Computer Complex (RTCC) system model.
IBM and SkylabIBM and the Saturn instrument unitIBM and the Space ShuttleIBM ThinkPads in space IBM Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Moon Landing50 years ago ibm created mainframe that helped bring men to the moonThe
Apollo Applications Program (AAP) was established by NASA headquarters in 1968 to develop science-based human spaceflight missions using hardware developed for the Apollo program. AAP was the ultimate development of a number of official and unofficial Apollo follow-on projects studied at various NASA labs.
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