Fast Company contributor Charles Fishman explores the late Prof. Charles Draper’s instrumental contributions to making space flight possible, noting that Draper was so committed to his work that he volunteered to train as an astronaut so he could join an Apollo mission. “Space travel wouldn’t have been possible without Draper’s work and that of his group at MIT’s Instrumentation Lab,” writes Fishman.
Fast Company contributor Charles Fishman speaks with Margaret Hamilton about her work at MIT on the development of software for the Apollo missions. Hamilton, who is often credited with popularizing the term software engineering explains that, “Software during the early days of (Apollo) was treated like a stepchild and not taken as seriously as other engineering disciplines, such as hardware engineering.”
In an article for Fast Company, Charles Fishman explores how MIT researchers pioneered the use of integrated circuits, technology that is an integral component of today’s digital technologies, in the Apollo 11 computer. “MIT, NASA, and the race to the Moon laid the very foundation of the digital revolution, of the world we all live in,” writes Fishman.
Boston Globe reporter Martin Finucane writes that a team of scientists, including MIT researchers, has uncovered evidence of a large mass, which could be the metallic core of an asteroid, under a crater on the dark side of the moon. “The results of this study provide new information on the violent history of our nearest celestial neighbor,” explains Prof. Maria Zuber, MIT’s vice president for research.
Writing for Fast Company, Charles Fishman explores how MIT researchers developed the computer that helped enable the Apollo 11 moon landing. Fishman notes that the computer was “the smallest, fastest, most nimble, and most reliable computer ever created,” adding that it became “so indispensable that some at MIT and NASA called it ‘the fourth crew member.’”
Blue Origin unveiled plans to send a spaceship to the moon, reports Seth Borenstein for the AP. Prof. Dava Newman explained that the newly designed rocket engine is what makes Blue Origin’s attempt to reach the moon unique. “It’s for real,” said Newman.
Writing for Smithsonian, Alice George highlights Margaret Hamilton’s work leading the team at the MIT Instrumentation Lab that developed the software for the Apollo 11 mission. “She was a pioneer when it came to development of software engineering,” says Teasel Muir-Harmony, a curator at the National Air and Space Museum, and “a pioneer as a woman in the workplace contributing to this type of program, taking on this type of role.”
Scientists at MIT and Brown University have discovered the origin of the Orientale basin, the oldest crater on the Moon, according to EFE. The impact of an asteroid 3.8 billion years ago formed a crater that has since “collapsed under the rock fractures and its temperatures forming three concentric rings visible today.”
Women You Should Know celebrates the 80th birthday of computer scientist Margaret Hamilton with a video spotlighting her work at MIT developing code for NASA’s Apollo program. Hamilton’s “Apollo code ultimately saved the Apollo 11 astronauts from having to abort their historic moon landing.”
Lily Rothman writes for TIME about how during computer scientist Margaret Hamilton’s time at MIT, she led the development of critical flight software that helped make the Apollo 11 moon landing possible. Hamilton recalls that she was “more happy about it [the on-board flight software] working than about the fact that we landed.”
MIT researchers have developed lightweight, inflatable tents that could allow astronauts to spend more time exploring the moon, reports Charles Choi for Popular Science. Choi explains that the “mobile overnight habitat, designed to fit aboard a no-frills lunar rover” would only take up “roughly half as much space as an average refrigerator” when packed.
Carolyn Johnson of The Boston Globe reports on Prof. Benjamin Weiss’ research examining evidence that the moon had a magnetic field. Johnson writes that analysis of moon rocks has shown that the moon "had a magnetic field caused by an ancient core dynamo.”
Macrina Cooper-White of The Huffington Post writes that MIT researchers have found evidence that the giant basin on the moon was created by ancient volcanic eruptions and not from an asteroid impact. An asteroid would have created a circular basin, but researchers found that the basin is actually more rectangular in shape, Cooper-White reports.
Jonathan Amos of BBC News reports that MIT researchers have identified a large rectangular feature on the moon. “The 2,500km-wide structure is believed to be the remains of old rift valleys that later became filled with lava,” writes Amos.
Washington Post reporter Rachel Feltman writes that researchers have found evidence that the moon’s basin was formed by magma flows. "For anyone who's ever looked up at the moon and wondered why it has this pattern on its surface — now we have an answer,” says MIT Vice President for Research Maria Zuber.