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Engineering Apollo: The Moon Project as a Complex System >> Content Detail



Study Materials



Readings

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This page includes a calendar of weekly assignments.



Required Texts


Amazon logo Kelly, Thomas. Moon Lander: How We Developed the Apollo Lunar Module. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2001. ISBN: 9781560989981.

Amazon logo Cox, Catherine Bly, and Charles Murray. Apollo: The Race to the Moon. Burkittsville, MD: Cox & Murray Inc., 2004. ISBN: 9780976000808.

Mindell, David. Digital Apollo: Human and Machine in Six Lunar Landings. Unpublished manuscript.



Optional Texts


Amazon logo Chaikin, Andrew. A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts. New York, NY: Penguin, 2007. ISBN: 9780143112358. (Strongly recommended.)

Amazon logo MacDougall, Walter. The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age. New York, NY: Basic Books Inc., 1985. ISBN: 9780465028870.

Amazon logo Kraft, Chris. Flight: My Life in Mission Control. New York, NY: Penguin, 2002. ISBN: 9780452283046.

Amazon logo Kranz, Gene. Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2001. ISBN: 9780425179871.



Other Reading


Dick, Steven J., and Roger D. Launius. "Introduction." In Critical Issues in the History of Spaceflight. (PDF)  (Courtesy of NASA.)

Whipple, Fred L. "Is There Life on Mars?" Collier's, April 30, 1954, 21.

Von Braun, Werhner, and Cornelius Ryan. "Can We Get to Mars?" Collier's, April 30, 1954, 22.

Porco, Carolyn. "NASA Goes Deep." New York Times, February 20, 2007, 19.



Weekly Reading Assignments



LEC #TOPICSASSIGNMENTS
1Introduction and overview
2Apollo as a complex systemMindell, chapter 1.

Cox and Murray, chapter 1.

3Historical/technical analysis of engineering systems

Scranton, Philip. "NASA and the Aerospace Industry: Critical Issues and Research Prospects." Dissertation; Rutgers University.

Amazon logo Vincenti, Walter G. What Engineers Know and How they Know It. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993, chapter 1. ISBN: 9780801845888.

Launius, Roger. "Interpreting the Moon Landings: Project Apollo and the Historians." History and Technology 22 (2006): 225-255.

4Systems engineering and atlas

Amazon logo Hughes, Thomas Park. Rescuing Prometheus. New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 2000, chapters 1 and 3. ISBN: 9780679739388.

Amazon logo Johnson, Stephen B. The Secret of Apollo. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006, chapters 1-2. ISBN: 9780801885426.

5Organizing research from NACA to NASA

Mindell, chapters 2-3.

Cox and Murray, chapters 2 and 6.

Sato, Yasushi. "Local Engineering in the Early American and Japanese Space Programs." Dissertation; University of Pennsylvania. Chapters 1-2.

6Sputnik, Mercury, and the Cold War

Amazon logo McDougall, Walter A. The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1985, chapters 2, 7, and 8. ISBN: 9780465028870.

Amazon logo Kauffman, James Lee. Selling Outer Space: Kennedy, the Media, and Funding for Project Apollo, 1961-1963. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 1994, chapters 2-3. ISBN: 9780817307479.

7Kennedy's decision: From politics to engineering specs

Launius, Roger. "Apollo: A Retrospective Analysis."

Amazon logo Logsdon, John. The Decision to Go to the Moon. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1976, chapters 2, 4, and 6. ISBN: 9780226491752.

Webb, and McNamara. "Recommendations for Our National Space Program: Changes, Policies, Goals." May 8, 1961.

Cox and Murray, chapters 4-5.

8The LOR decision

Hansen, James. Enchanted Rendezvous: John C. Houbolt and the Genesis of the Lunar-Orbit Rendezvous Concept. NASA, 1995.

Seamans, Robert. Apollo: The Tough Decisions. Washington, DC: NASA, 2005, chapter 3. (PDF - 2.9 MB)  (Courtesy of NASA.)

Cox and Murray, chapters 7-9.

9The Soviet moon program (PDF)

Gerovitch, Slava. "New Soviet Man Inside the Machine."

———. "Human Machine Issues in the Soviet Space Program." Chapter 4 in Critical Issues in the History of Space Flight. Edited by Dick, Steven J., and Roger Launius. Washington, DC: NASA, 2006. (PDF - 1.0 MB)  (Courtesy of NASA.)

10Gemini and early Apollo engineeringMindell, chapter 4.
11Apollo guidance and control

Amazon logo Hall, Eldon C. Journey to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Guidance Computer. Reston, VA: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1996, chapters 4-7. ISBN: 9781563471858.

Nevins, J. L. "Man-Machine Design for the Apollo Guidance, Navigation, and Control System." Presented at the 2nd IFAC Symposium on Automatic Control in Space, Vienna, Austria, September 4-8, 1967.

Mindell, chapters 5-6.

12Astronautical guidanceBattin, R. H. "Some Funny Things Happened on the Way to the Moon." AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics 25 (2002): 1-7.
13Engineering the LEMKelley, Moon Lander.
14Designing a landing

Bennett, and Cheatham. "Apollo Lunar Module Landing Strategy." (PDF - 2.7 MB)  (Courtesy of NASA.)

Klumpp, A. R. "A Manually Retargeted Automatic Landing System for the Lunar Module." Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets 40 (2003): 973-982.

Mindell, chapter 8.

15NASA's current moon plans
16Apollo software

Eyles. "Tales from the Lunar Module Guidance Computer." Presented to the 27th Annual Guidance and Control Conference of the American Astronautical Society (AAS). Breckenridge, CO: February 6, 2004.

Johnson, Madeline S., and Donald R. Giller. "MIT's Role in Project Apollo, Volume 5: Software." (PDF 1 - 8.3 MB) (PDF 2 - 7.7 MB )

Mindell, chapter 7.

17Apollo 11

Apollo 11: The NASA Mission Reports

Apollo Lunar Surface Journal: Apollo 12 "A Visit to the Snowman."

Bennett. "Apollo Experience Report: Mission Planning for Lunar Module Descent and Ascent." (PDF - 1.9 MB)  (Courtesy of NASA.)

Cox and Murray, chapters 24-25.

Mindell, chapter 9.

18Apollo 14: An astronaut's view
19Apollo 12 and group project freetime
20Covering Apollo: The role of the press

Amazon logo Smith, Michael L. "Selling the Moon: The U.S. Manned Space Program and the Triumph of Commodity Scientism." In The Culture of Consumption: Critical Essays in American History, 1880-1980. Edited by Richard Wightman Foz and T. J. Jackson Lears. New York, NY: Pantheon, 1983. ISBN: 9780394511313.

Launius. "Heroes in a Vacuum: The Apollo Astronaut as Cultural Icon." (PDF)#

Collection of original news articles.

Kauffman, chapter 4.

21Life support and human factors IPitts, John A. The Human Factor. Chapters 1-7.
22Bob Parker: Scientist-astronauts and lunar science
23Student presentations
24Student presentations wrap-up
25MIT museum trip
26Final class

 








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