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RE: RE: starship-design: unmanned missions
Paul Anderson writes:
> On Thu, 12 Feb 1998, L. Parker wrote:
>
> > Kelly,
> >
> > My understanding was that the original shuttle computers were running some
> > sort of version of DOS on 8086s. Is this true?
> >
> Depends on what you mean by 'original'. AFAIK, the apollo missions had an
> on-board computer, I beleive it was analog. TTYL!
It was definitely digital. Analog computers have too many moving
parts and aren't going to work well during launch or landing
operations.
I inititally tried searching the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal
site at http://venus.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/ for an
account I remember reading about the Apollo LEM computer, which
as I recall was operated using what were practically subroutine
addresses or the like. However, the search turned up an even
more interesting document that I haven't had a chance to read
yet, but which probably addresses many of the questions about
computer control of spacecraft:
Computers in Spaceflight: The NASA Experience
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/computers/Compspace.html