Digital Apollo: Human and Machine in Spaceflight
by David A. Mindell
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Book Summary Information
Author: David A. MindellEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-05-31
ISBN: 0262134977
Number of pages: 456
Publisher: MIT Press
Book Reviews of Digital Apollo: Human and Machine in Spaceflight
Book Review: A Benchmark Study that Redefines the Interaction of Human and Machine in the Race to the Moon
Summary: 5 Stars
"Digital Apollo: Human and Machine in Spaceflight" by David A. Mindell is an excellent work of history and a benchmark in the study of Project Apollo. It will become a starting point for all future work on the technology of this important space effort. The landscape of Apollo is littered with general histories, memoirs, and run-of-the mill popular accounts, but outstanding historical writing on the subject is much less common.
In the past most historians have focused on one of five major areas relative to Apollo. These include the foreign policy and public policy antecedents of Apollo and its immediate ramifications, the flights of the astronauts, the history of lunar science, the social and cultural history of the Moon landings, and the evolution of space technology. It is in this last category that this work makes an important contribution. While most of the prior work on the history of Apollo technology has been internalist in focus and undertaken by those mesmerized by the "nuts and bolts" story without much attention to the wider context, Mindell's account embraces a larger vision of how Apollo fit into the human/machine relationship for flight vehicles. He argues for, and then succeeds in demonstrating, a new research agenda in the history of human spaceflight that extends beyond the virtual catechism of retelling of a specific myth in the conventional story. He shows how historians might move beyond the "fetish for the artifact" that has dominated most of the historiography of Apollo.
Mindell's most significant contribution is to highlight the debate that has raged since the origins of spaceflight between the pilot/astronauts and the aerospace engineers over the degree of control held by each group in human-rated spacecraft. The engineers placed much greater emphasis on automatic control systems and sought to reduce the role of astronauts on board a spacecraft. These space engineers mostly viewed the astronaut as a "weak link" in the spacecraft control system. Of course, the question of whether machines could perform control functions better than people became the subject of considerable public debate.
The ever increasing capability of electronic systems served to undermine the argument in favor of complete human control. Despite this, the American astronauts used their celebrity status to assert more control over spacecraft systems, seeking to overcome what many thought they already were, "spam in a can." Over time they were successful, to the extent that the Space Shuttle became the first American human space vehicle that could not be flown as an automated system. This dynamic of human/machine interaction is critical to the current approach to human spaceflight, and Mindell has performed a valuable service by shining an intense searchlight on these issues.
What "Digital Apollo" does better than any work yet published, is open a window to the fascinating interactions of the astronauts and the engineers in the developing the technologies and processes necessary for the landings on the Moon. The author emphasizes the manner in which the Lunar Modules set down on the surface and the control systems that allowed that difficult task to take place. Mindell expends considerable effort to understand the design and development of the Apollo Guidance Computer, a critical piece of technology that fundamentally altered the nature of the task, and how this was employed in developing procedures for landing. The last part of this work focuses on the experience of the lunar landings themselves.
No one has explored this theme previously in the history of U.S. human spaceflight despite a large number of sophisticated analytical histories concerning Apollo technology written by master historians. Those previous works, often prepared under contract to NASA were marked by well-defined and quite restricted parameters, high levels of research in primary source documents, comprehensive treatment, and a generally turgid style. Mindell uses their documentary nature to his advantage, as grist for his novel investigation. The result is an outstanding work of history.
Summary of Digital Apollo: Human and Machine in Spaceflight
How human pilots and automated systems worked together to achieve the ultimate in flight--the lunar landings of NASA's Apollo program.
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