[HN Gopher] Restoring the Apollo Guidance Computer [video]
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       Restoring the Apollo Guidance Computer [video]
        
       Author : ruik
       Score  : 87 points
       Date   : 2023-07-08 20:42 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
        
       | marcodiego wrote:
       | Interesting: he says that the famous 1202 error may sometimes
       | crash the spacecraft and sometimes land successful in some other
       | cases. And also that it depends on many factors. So, the sane
       | thing to do at that moment, AIUI, was to abort the landing.
       | 
       | The Apollo 11 landing was not a tragedy be sheer luck. IIRC
       | Armstrong asked ground control about 1202 and they tell him to
       | ignore it. Ground controllers, probably unknowingly, bet
       | Armstrong and Aldrin lives.
        
         | wrs wrote:
         | Not unknowingly at all. They had worked out the criteria for
         | all the program alarms ahead of time. You can see their "cheat
         | sheet" here: https://www.space.com/apollo-11-guidance-officer-
         | remembers-m...
        
           | devilbunny wrote:
           | The video strongly implies that the conditions for 1201/1202
           | alarms might, or might not, lead to a crash. The take in the
           | video is that they got lucky both in sim and reality.
        
       | MochaDen wrote:
       | So cool I'm going to have to go play with the PDP-11/15 in my
       | basement to get my old hardware jones on.
       | 
       | This video of building a custom Apollo electroluminescent glass
       | panel DSKY display is also fantastic!
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2o_Sp2-aBo
        
         | JKCalhoun wrote:
         | Yeah, a lot of vintage stuff hitting the HN front page lately.
         | I'm loving that.
        
       | pomian wrote:
       | I highly recommend the book, Sunburst and Luminary;
       | http://www.sunburstandluminary.com/SLhome.html
       | 
       | A technical pleasure and also very good glimpse into the Apollo
       | team - working together, to land on the moon. It is a fun easy
       | read, written by the fellow in charge of programming computer on
       | the lunar lander. It is also a great snapshot of that time in
       | history, the excitement of Apollo, and with the frustration of
       | the Vietnam war going on, some protests, etc. Just a hint - the
       | main programmer, was an English major, and his use of the right
       | words, were a key factor in the success of of creating an
       | efficient and effective computer language.
        
         | pomian wrote:
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17740486
        
       | pockybum522 wrote:
       | Oh look, it's the best thing I've ever watched on youtube.
       | 
       | Okay, that might be slight hyperbole, but it's solidly in my top
       | ten. One of those where the video documentation has no flourish,
       | and as such doesn't get in the way of how cool the actual project
       | is.
       | 
       | Excellent series. If anyone knows of anything even remotely
       | similar, please send it my way.
        
       | kanwisher wrote:
       | super cool video, check it out
        
         | ruik wrote:
         | Please also check curious marc youtube channel where you will
         | find almost all of mentioned adventures!
        
           | kanwisher wrote:
           | Thanks just watched his video on Japanese Relay computer.
        
           | scrps wrote:
           | Ken Sherriff (righto.com) who's chip teardowns are often
           | posted on HN is also a frequent guest on curious marc's
           | channel.
        
             | shrx wrote:
             | Ken Shirriff*
        
               | scrps wrote:
               | Thank you, I didn't even notice that. Too late for me to
               | edit the post :(
        
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       (page generated 2023-07-09 23:01 UTC)