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.”
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.
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.’”
Writing for CNN about designing a spacesuit suitable for Mars, Jackie Wattles spotlights Prof. Dava Newman’s work developing the BioSuit. “Space flight for me is about raising up all of our potential, and it's also about answering the hardest problems I can think of," says Newman. "Designing a suit for an astronaut to go to Mars is about the biggest challenge I can think of.”
In an article for Wired, Joi Ito, director of the Media Lab, argues that rules and regulations must be established to ensure the responsible exploration of space. “As space becomes more commercial and pedestrian like the internet, we must not allow the cosmos to become a commercial and government free-for-all with disregard for the commons and shared values,” writes Ito.
Forbes contributor Jamie Carter writes that TESS has identified an Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting a star 52 light years from Earth. The planet "takes about eight days to orbit the host star and is similar in size to Earth at 89% its diameter,” writes Carter. “A likely rocky world, it's thought to have surface temperatures as high as 800°F /427°C.”
Wall Street Journal reporter Leigh Kamping-Carder highlights how MIT researchers are developing a number of new technologies aimed at easing the transition to space for future amateur astronauts. A robotic tail developed by Media Lab researchers could help space travelers “grab objects, anchor to surfaces and balance while floating in environments with reduced gravity.”
Fortune’s Aaron Pressman writes about this year’s New Space Age Conference at MIT and how it has changed since the first iteration in 2016. SpaceX, rather than Boeing, “was the big incumbent” and “too much money may have flowed into too many startups all chasing the same few satellite opportunities,” writes Pressman.