Left Brains for the Right Stuff: Computers, Space, and History
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.29 (844 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0996434534 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 474 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 0000-00-00 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Author Hugh Blair-Smith was a staff engineer at the Lab from 1959 through 1981. This is a history, an inside story, and a riveting account of the Space Race, studded with startling insights into causes and effects. In those exciting years, Blair-Smith joined many thousands of people in cooperating gladly, generously, and passionately to add electronic left brains to the Right Stuff. At Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Instrumentation Laboratory ("the Lab") was the creation of one man, Charles Stark "Doc" Draper, who invented inertial navigation. achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon "). Kennedy inherited a small Space Race and transformed it into a Moon Race by creating the Apollo program (". What made the Space Race possible? What made it necessary? How close a race was it? And what did it achieve? The answers are connected in surprising ways. Their creations answered the long-sought quest for "a moral equivalent to war.". Left Brains for the Right Stuff briefly summarizes the history of three technologies-rockets, navigation, and computers-and recounts how they were woven into the rise and rivalry of superpowers in the twentieth century. To make it an "offer" the Soviet Union couldn't refuse, he added, "We choose to go to the moon not because it is easy, but because it is
"Exciting account of a person who clearly found passion in" according to Jonathan C. Exciting account of a person who clearly found passion in his career. A bit dense at parts, but the author's enthusiasm for his work is infectious!. "Five Stars" according to theruralartist. Amazing book! Reminds me that at one time the USA was great and mighty. We suck now.. "Left Brains is a fun read captures the discovery" according to R Passov. Many books have been written about the Apollo program and about the computers that served the missions. This is one of the very few to have been written by a mathematician and an engineer who was there from the very beginning. The author designed and implemented the assembler for the series of computers that guided the Apollo missions. Left Brains is a fun read captures the discovery, ingenuity and invention that went into building and programming the Apollo Guidance Computers. Along the way, it offers an overview of the history of computer science and describes how something so gra
When he's not sailing or preparing a paper to give at the next Digital Avionics Systems Conference, he enjoys teaching boating skills, reading (mostly history and other non-fiction), avoiding watching television, taking medium walks and thinking long thoughts, and puzzling out the meaning in a busy life. Leaving MIT at the end of 1981, he specialized in user-interface and system-performance software, and after retiring to Cape Cod in 2005, worked with NASA on reliability software for an instrument in the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, thereby placing thousands of his own ones and zeros in orbit around the Moon. There are also two teenaged grandchildren and approximately twenty-five granddogs. Hugh and his wife Vicki, married since 1968, have two grown children, who are successful professionals. That timing gave him a ground-floor spot with Apollo's Primary Guidance, Navigation, and Control system, where he became the software specialist o
Direct contact with astronauts included Buzz Aldrin (studying rendezvous science at MIT), Dave Scott (among the first to fully embrace the AGC way of flying), and Bob Crippen (a team member on the Shuttle work). Hugh and his wife Vicki, married since 1968, have two grown children, who are successful professionals. . Leaving MIT at the end of 1981, he specialized in user-int