popularmechanics.com — Each time the space shuttle rises from its launchpad, a range safety officer waits anxiously for the first 2 minutes to pass safely. If the spaceship were to veer off course and endanger a populated area, this officer would bear a terrible responsibility...
May 7, 2008 View in Crawl 4
Closed AccountMay 8, 2008
Yeah, well keep in mind that this was 40+ years ago when computers were very different, as was computer programming, especially when we're talking about something as big as the space race. These computers had less computing power than an average digital watch these days. (The ones used in Gemini/Apollo relied on core memory built with wire-wrapped NAND gates.) These computers would have likely been programmed directly in assembler by some of the top engineers of the day and verified by people with phd's. The fact that such a bug got through in that environment is much more significant back then then it is today.
doctechnicalMay 8, 2008
OK, no offense meant, I've just never heard of term used in that context.
pebeckerMay 8, 2008
The gates used for the Apollo Guidance Computer were NOR, not NAND, and the core memory was made of ferrite cores, not gates at all. Yes, I'm a geek friend of several AGC programmers as well as the chief designer of the AGC.
testiculeseMay 8, 2008
Needs a Hello Kitty sticker, I think... ;)
Closed AccountMay 8, 2008
no its not...?
subliminalurgeMay 8, 2008
Time to add a few new layers of tin-foil, dude.
griffinMay 8, 2008
The Range Safety officer detonates the SRBs. It is extremely unlikely that the orbiter could do a 180 and plummet towards the earth, and any time during the first two minutes of flight the SRBs (and external tank) can be manually jettisoned from the Shuttle Stack. It is highly unlikely that the RSO would have to detonate while the orbiter is in danger of also being obliterated.
Closed AccountMay 9, 2008
Dedicated.