Digital Apollo cover art

Digital Apollo

Human and Machine in Spaceflight

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Digital Apollo

By: David A. Mindell
Narrated by: Kyle Tait
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About this listen

As Apollo 11's lunar module descended toward the moon under automatic control, a program alarm in the guidance computer's software nearly caused a mission abort. Neil Armstrong responded by switching off the automatic mode and taking direct control. He stopped monitoring the computer and began flying the spacecraft, relying on skill to land it and earning praise for a triumph of human over machine. In Digital Apollo, engineer-historian David Mindell takes this famous moment as a starting point for an exploration of the relationship between humans and computers in the Apollo program.

Digital Apollo examines the design and execution of each of the six Apollo moon landings, drawing on transcripts and data telemetry from the flights, astronaut interviews, and NASA's extensive archives. Mindell's exploration of how human pilots and automated systems worked together to achieve the ultimate in flight - a lunar landing - traces and reframes the debate over the future of humans and automation in space. The results have implications for any venture in which human roles seem threatened by automated systems, whether it is the work at our desktops or the future of exploration.

©2008 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (P)2019 Tantor Aeronautics & Astronautics Astronomy Astronomy & Space Science History History & Culture Science Technology Interstellar US Air Force Software

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a fascinating insite into the moon landing computer and the development of the control systems.

Excellent, very interesting

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I love Apollo, and this book has all the vigour and romance of the Apollo story. But it is also fearsomely analytical, and ruthlessly unpicks all our usual assumptions about the heroism of spaceflight. The performance is excellent too. Nice pacing, clear diction, elegant intonation.

A brilliant analysis of human-machine interaction

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Buy the paper version... Its a fascinating subject especially of you work with or are involved in IT. I admit I persevered with this audio book and generally I can deal with the quirks of a narrator but there's no chance of me listening to this again.

The narrator just grates on me and puts an odd emphasis on the end of every sentence ( I cant describe it )

Fascinating insight- painful listening experience

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Simply outstanding. The technical obstacles are to eloquently explained. On a par to David Woods How Apollo flew to the moon.

Outstanding!

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The story shifted between technical aspects concerning the early days of computerisation in space flight to philosophical discussion on human control vs automation throughout. I found the technical aspects quite interesting, but the philosophical bits got rather repetitive after a while. While it was an interesting enough listen, it did feel like the story meandered somewhat drifting off into another 5-10 minutes of "pilot vs machine" debate at regular intervals throughout the book. As has been commented on previously, unfortunately, the book is let down by the narration. The narrator puts a prolonged, "breathy" emphasis on the last word of every sentence. It can be quite distracting and does make this a hard listen. Overall, worth a listen - but once is definitely enough.

Meandering but interesting; let down by narration

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