
The Computer Hack That Saved Apollo 14 (2017) [video] - camtarn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSSmNUl9Snw
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mhandley
If you're interested in this, I can recommend Sunburst and Luminary: An Apollo
Memoir, by Don Eyles.
[http://www.sunburstandluminary.com/SLhome.html](http://www.sunburstandluminary.com/SLhome.html)

It was Don who wrote the Apollo lunar module software that handled the whole
landing phase, and was responsible for the hack that saved the Apollo 14
mission. The book details the whole history of the LEM software development. I
particularly like the part relating to the details behind the 1201 and 1202
program alarms on Apollo 11. I hadn't realized that they actually signified
the LEM computer doing a full software reboot. Not what you really want to see
on a fly-by-wire spacecraft during the landing phase. This turned out to be OK
because the critical tasks were restartable, as they anticipated a power
glitch and really didn't want to crater if one happened at a critical momemnt.

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sizzzzlerz
Don Eyles, the programmer who devised the guidance computer patch, published a
book, Sunburst and Luminary, earlier this year that provides more details on
his work as a programmer for the Apollo computer while at MIT. It focuses
primarily on Apollo 11 and the 1201/1202 errors it encountered during descent.
He discussed the Apollo 14 fix in a 1971 article in Rolling Stone magazine.

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thestoicattack
Here's that Rolling Stone article:
[https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/don-
eyle...](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/don-eyles-extra-
weird-looking-freak-saves-apollo-14-40737/)

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Hextinium
This is basically an article that says go watch a video by Scott Manly who is
a very good communicator about space topics. He has lots of videos about
various Apollo era topics and recent events that are particularly convoluted
when they came out. Great resource highly recommended.

[https://www.youtube.com/user/szyzyg](https://www.youtube.com/user/szyzyg)

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rbjorklin
His Kerbal Space Profram videos are really good and informative! Highly
recommended!

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rtkwe
I'm sad he's stopped doing his long form KSP series a la insterstellar and
only seems to post unedited livestreams of KSP these days and space news
stories.

