USA Today reporter Joshua Bote highlights Prof. Dava Newman’s work developing a skintight spacesuit called the BioSuit, which should provide astronauts greater mobility. The BioSuit includes “nucleated boron minitubes spun into thread and sewn into these stretchy suits – effectively protecting the human body from space radiation,” writes Bote.
Code developed by Margaret Hamilton, who led the development of the onboard flight software for the Apollo missions at the MIT Instrumentation Lab, was “good — so good, in fact, that it very well might have saved the entire Apollo 11 mission,” writes Dylan Matthews for Vox.
Writing for The Boston Globe, Shirley Leung spotlights the thousands of women who helped make the Apollo 11 mission a success, including Margaret Hamilton and Saydean Zeldin of the MIT Instrumentation Lab. Zeldin, who worked on the program responsible for turning the command module’s engines on and off, recalls that she “had to formulate the equations that we were going to code.”
CBS News reporter Norah O’Donnell explores how Margaret Hamilton, who led the development of the onboard flight software for the Apollo missions, was “critical to the success of the Apollo 11 mission.” Hamilton explains that, “It was the first time man walked on the moon and the first time software ran on the moon.”
CBS News reporter William Harwood spotlights the Apollo 11 astronauts who made history by successfully completing the first landing on the moon, including Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, who “earned a Ph.D. in orbital mechanics from MIT and helped perfect the rendezvous techniques needed by Apollo crews.”
Wall Street Journal reporter Robert Lee Hotz explores the development of the Apollo Guidance Computer at the MIT Instrumentation Lab. Holtz writes that the computer’s “legacy is in just about every pocket, driveway, home and office. Its descendants helped to remake how the world learns, works, plays, communicates, spends and socializes.”
Margaret Hamilton, who led the development of the onboard flight software for the Apollo missions at MIT, speaks with Guardian reporter Zoë Corbyn about her trailblazing work in computing. When asked her advice for young women interested in computer programming, Hamilton says, “Don’t let fear get in the way and don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know” or “I don’t understand” – no question is a dumb question.”
Boston Globe reporter Hiawatha Bray explores how MIT Instrumentation Lab researchers helped pave the way for the Apollo 11 moon landing. Bray notes Instrumentation Lab researchers “developed one of its most vital components: the guidance and navigation systems that directed the Apollo command and landing crafts to — and onto — the moon.”
Smithsonian reporters Abigail Croll and Maddi Hellmich spotlight Margaret Hamilton’s work developing the coding used in the Apollo 11 onboard flight software and lunar landing machinery. “Because software was a mystery, a black box, upper management gave us total freedom and trust,” says Hamilton. “Looking back, we were the luckiest people in the world; there was no choice but to be pioneers."
WCVB-TV’s Chronicle highlights MIT startup Lunar Station, which is developing navigational services for companies and organizations looking to travel to the moon. Chronicle explains that the Lunar Station team “maps the lunar surface to ensure safe and profitable missions.”
WCVB-TV’s Chronicle spotlights how researchers at the MIT Instrumentation Lab developed the technology needed to successfully bring Apollo astronauts to the moon.
In this WGBH documentary, Prof. Jeff Hoffman, a former astronaut, discusses what inspired him to pursue a career in space exploration and recounts his experiences voyaging in space. “There is something very, very powerful about looking at the Earth from the outside,” says Hoffman. “It’s a different place than when you are actually standing on it.”
BBC Future reporter Richard Hollingham examines how MIT researchers developed the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC), which helped Apollo 11 astronauts navigate safely to and from the moon. “The AGC was filled with thousands of integrated circuits, or silicon chips,” Hollingham explains. “NASA’s order of this new technology led to the rapid expansion of Silicon Valley and accelerated the development of today’s computers.”
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.”