Apollo 11 1202 alarm Youtube video

[Don Shepherd]

Here is an interesting YouTube video on the famous 1202 program alarm that struck Apollo 11 on final approach to landing on the moon in 1969.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4cn93H6sM0

[KimH]

If this caught your interest this link goes deep into what actually happened 1202 event

[floppy]

Both above posts: excellent. I enjoyed both video.
My understanding:
- historical explanation: we can do a lot with limited resources
- the human-machine interaction is not easy (malfunction analysis in the case)

[carey]

Yes, great links but should mention Margaret Hamilton, the Draper MIT software engineer in charge of the on-board computer software and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient who came up with the idea and code for the 1202 and other alarms as described here and interviewed here.

[Thomas Klemm]

(07-10-2022 01:56 AM)carey Wrote:  should mention Margaret Hamilton (…) interviewed here.

From the transcript:

Quote:But I think about it in our culture and I think it’s a really cultural problem.
When you see women not being allowed to drive in certain countries or you see women can't become priests, and you start seeing it--
and you know how I feel about system of systems of systems and the butterfly effect or whatever.
Every single one of those things impacts our culture or impacts women or minorities as to whether they can even do something or not,
‘cause kids might think, well, I can't do that because I’m this or I’m that.
Until we start making changes, until our leaders stop admiring people who do things that encourage that, we have a problem, right?

Thanks to everyone who shared all these interesting links.

[Hollerith]

In 2019 the BBC produced a series of podcasts to mark 50 years since Apollo 11.

Episode 5 "The fourth astronaut" is concerned with the AGC.

It can be found here

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csz4dn

I suggest you download the mp3 file as it does not need to register with the BBC.

[Bill (Smithville NJ)]

(07-10-2022 09:02 AM)Hollerith Wrote:  In 2019 the BBC produced a series of podcasts to mark 50 years since Apollo 11.

Episode 5 "The fourth astronaut" is concerned with the AGC.

It can be found here

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csz4dn

I suggest you download the mp3 file as it does not need to register with the BBC.

It's a fantastic podcast and I highly recommend you listen to all episodes of it.
Note: You can either download all the episodes or just subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcast program/app.

73
Bill WD9EQD
Smithville, NJ

[Bill (Smithville NJ)]

Another good reference is the Book by Frank O'Brien:

The Apollo Guidance Computer: Architecture and Operation


Starting on Page 358 is the Section: Computer Problems During Apollo 11 and Apollo 14.

The book is a little on the heavy side, but does gives lots of inside information on the AGC. The book is available for free on the Internet Archive Site (download the PDF version. The OCR is not good enough for epub and mobi versions):

The Apollo Guidance Computer Architecture


Frank O'Brien hosts monthly lectures at The InfoAge Space Exploration Center (ISEC) in Wall Township, NJ. These are always very interesting and cover a range of topics. If you are on the east coast then I recommend checking them out.

Frank also gives talks on the AGC. Following is PDF of the slides for his talk:

Apollo Guidance Computer Slides from Talk

And if you are into the Apollo missions, you must check out the Real Time Audio Website for Apollo's 11, 13 and 17. It's an amazing site. Complete Mission audio with transcripts. You can select from various missions control officers audio channels.

Apollo in Real Time


73
Bill WD9EQD
Smithville, NJ