[Year 12 IT Apps] Footprints on the Moon

[Roland Gesthuizen]

Here is an email that has done the rounds over the past few weeks. It was
about the NASA Apollo moon lander module, size of the computer and 64 kb of
memory!

Although the computer was slow, the MIT team developed a robust, real-time
multi-tasking operating system (long before Linux). The system worked, but
almost caused the first moon landing to be aborted in the final minutes
before the touchdown. For recognising the error code and making the critical
decision to continue, the mission control expert back on Earth later
received the US Medal of Freedom along with the three Apollo astronauts. It
is a true story of some hard core programmers and technicians on a voyage of
discovery.

It is worth reading the blog entry by David McMahon (and link to the ABC
Science unit page)
    http://david-mcmahon.blogspot.com/

Regards Roland

-- 
Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College
http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change
the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead
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