News & Analysis
NASA Ends Era That Never Was?
Nine minutes before the space shuttle Atlantis touched down, a little white dot passed over the horizon, visible for a brief moment to the crowds gathered before dawn Thursday at the Kennedy Space Center to welcome home the shuttle for the last time. For now, the future of America's space program is that dot — the International Space Center, a 900,000-pound laboratory orbiting 240 miles above the Earth, says Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for space operations. – USA Today
Dominant Social Theme: The grand era of space exploration is receding. There were giants then ... that are no more.
Free-Market Analysis: The US mainstream media is in full cry over the end of the space shuttle program (see above). This article in USA Today is a good example of it, tugging on the heart strings to remind readers of the glory that once was. it provides us with another opportunity to examine the totality of the US manned missions, including those moon missions that supposedly happened in the 1960s.
The Apollo man-on-the-moon missions are increasingly controversial. They comprise is a dominant social theme that the US was greater "before" when it was able to put men on the moon in numerous separate missions. Yet such sentiments may be misplaced. Increasingly, we are suspicious, as we have reported in the past. We think the entire NASA program may simply be an extension of larger untruths built around the American people in layers, the way a potter casts a pot. Some examples:
• The political elites through the CIA's Project Mockingbird worked intensively with top media companies to provide Americans with news and information that top Intel agencies wanted them to receive. That information may have had little or nothing to do with reality and sought reinforce phony Cold War tensions and the necessity of Leviathan. The program, which touched great media enterprises like the Washington Post and Time Magazine may be ongoing.
• Operation Gladio, pan-European in its dimensions, set up a secret stay-behind army to wage a war against the USSR that never was. In order to ensure that Europeans remained sympathetic to Anglo-American causes, various kinds of para-military activities were conducted by Western Intel and then blamed, apparently, on "leftists."
• The Pentagon's Operation Northwoods called for blowing up an American passenger plane over the US to incite a war with Cuba. "The plan, which had the written approval of the Chairman and every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called for innocent people to be shot on American streets; for boats carrying refugees fleeing Cuba to be sunk on the high seas; for a wave of violent terrorism to be launched in Washington, D.C., Miami, and elsewhere." (- What Really Happened)
• The Tonkin Gulf incident, in which it was claimed that North Vietnam military vessels attacked US ships with torpedoes was used by President Lyndon Johnson as a pretext to declare war on North Vietnam. He later remarked, "They could have been shooting at whales out there for all I know."
• Al-Qaeda (The Base) grew out of Arab volunteers who fought the Soviet invasion in the 1980s; the CIA brought Afghans and Arabs to the United States for military training. Bin Laden recruited for The Base in the US, under the name "Al-Khifah" and used the Farouq Mosque in Brooklyn's Atlantic Avenue as his headquarters.
• The American government claims to have killed Osama bin Laden on May 1, 2011 in a daring SEAL raid (see other article this issue). Yet according to a Fox News story, 'Report: Bin Laden Already Dead', Osama bin Laden died due to an untreated lung complication. The article dateline was December 26th 2001.
On and on. The list of obvious US Intel actions either planned or carried out, no doubt with the cooperation of the Mossad and Britain's MI6 is long and varied – far longer than the above examples. But they have several things in common. They were (and are) elaborate operations to make Americans (and the West) believe in a history that never occurred; and they were designed to bolster citizens' faith in government as a fundamental, necessary element of civil society.
The history that most people have grown up with is at least to a degree fallacious. It is manipulated or directed history that seeks to aggrandize government to ensure that people believe they need higher authorities to run every aspect of their lives. In this way, people are controlled, taxed and otherwise positioned to accept the coming one-world government, also known as the new world order.
It is not merely a hypothetical evolution; it is a deliberate, ongoing attempt at mind control on a massive level affecting millions, even billions of people at a time. The scope is breathtaking and the arrogance is incomprehensible. We have recently labeled it a Pharisaical program and believe it is aimed at manipulating both Jews and gentiles alike.
This effort may be as old as 300 years in its current incarnation and rooted in liturgy that is thousands of years old. It is motivated, seemingly, by a cold and calculated anger, a merciless, intergenerational rage that transforms people – the "Other" – into livestock to be herded at will, their perceptions altered by whatever means necessary.
Within this context it seems clear to us, as we have now suggested on numerous occasions, that the vaunted NASA programs that sent men to the moon may never really have existed. Here is the skeptic's ultimate hypothesis:
"There is no doubt that NASA sent men up into orbit – but that is where they stayed while the world was entertained with fictitious footage of men exploring the moon, footage that had been filmed on elaborate Hollywood sets apparently by one of the world's greatest cinematic directors. He later made another movie, The Shining, leaving clues about his participation. His death would seem to be suspicious."
This is in dispute, but here are facts ... As a result of increased pressure stemming from the Internet, NASA eventually announced it had "lost" the initial tapes documenting the moon landings. Then it was announced that some had been rediscovered; NASA explained that these had been "enhanced' so that people could fully appreciate the moon and its men. Some of course might disagree. But NASA retouchers didn't ask for input.
In the Netherlands, a piece of petrified wood on exhibit at the national museum was found to have been mistaken for a "moon rock" ... NASA, which sent the "rock," has no explanation for it. Astronauts taking pictures with their bulky gloves would have had to take one photo every 15 seconds to justify the amount of photos that emerged from the "moon landings."
The shadows on the moon are distorted; the dialogue between the astronauts and "mission control" seem to reveal evidence of fakery; the first press conference after the initial astronauts had returned from the moon is the single most bizarre public event in the annals of modern scientific history. A single viewing of that press conference should convince normal people that something funny was going on. Click here to watch.
We could continue; there are literally hundreds of anomalous facts about the moon landings, and despite a torrent of rebuttals in the mainstream press, the deconstruction continues. The Internet, never conceived of at the time of the Apollo project, has virtually blown apart what seems to have been the greatest scam of the 20th century.
It wasn't enough that the Anglo-American (Pharisaical) elite apparently funded two wars and killed millions to set up the infrastructure of world government. It wasn't enough to set up a phony economic system, worldwide, that attempts to convince people that "central bankers" can "run" the world's economy.
The contempt was not assuaged; the anger unslaked. The orgy of historical destruction had to reach into the heavens where it willfully darkened the great satellite. Now bureaucrats weep for what never was. Here's some more from the article excerpted at the beginning of this analysis:
NASA Test Director Mike Ciannilli choked up the second he saw the shuttle's tires touch the 3-mile-long runway."It was the moment I knew it was over," he said. "To work here has been an honor and the dream of a lifetime." On the runway, launch director Mike Leinbach, who has worked at Kennedy for 27 years, paused a moment to take in the grand view of Atlantis. "I saw grown men and grown women crying," he said. "Human emotions came out on the runway today." ...
Without the excitement of astronauts blasting toward the stars, America's space program seems destined for a decade of obscurity. U.S. astronauts will hitch rides to the International Space Station on the Russian Soyuz until commercial space companies develop rockets and capsules to transport humans. President Obama has charged NASA with finding a way to transport astronauts into deep space, either to Mars or an asteroid, but that flight could be a generation away ...
"We're focusing right now on 2025. We've got big things that are going to happen," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, a former shuttle commander, said in an interview after the landing. Meanwhile, Gerstenmaier said, Americans should look to the International Space Station, the space shuttle's most ambitious legacy, for inspiration. The station took more than a decade and 37 shuttle flights to build. Atlantis Mission Specialist Sandra Magnus called it "a magical, wonderful place."
The space station is some 200-plus miles up in the air. The builders apparently dare not go much farther than that. Rockets and shuttles have flown as high as 400 miles in "earth orbit." With the exception of the anomalous "moon missions," which supposedly encompassed some 500,000 miles using computers that could fit into a modern pencil box, human beings have never been much farther from earth than several hundred miles.
There is a reason: The Van Allen radiation belts. There are two such belts: "a torus of energetic charged particles (plasma) around Earth, which is held in place by Earth's magnetic field," according to Wikipedia. The CIA's favorite online encyclopedia also tells us that "Apollo astronauts traveled through the Van Allen radiation belts on the way to the moon, however, exposure was minimized by following a trajectory along the edge of the belts that avoided the strongest areas of radiation."
NASA technicians are on record as saying the Van Allen belts pose a formidable challenge to further space flight and that new shielding technology will have to be developed before such additional efforts are to be made. The gold foil wrapped round the legs of the initial moon lander is not now seen as enough.
It is the Internet that has provided us the (apparent) truth about these government sponsored lies. Any single fact as regards these myriad, world-spanning hoaxes can be rebutted – and the rebuttals, patronizing and extensive, are trotted out in a thousand mainstream websites, many of them no doubt the progeny of Project Mockingbird. But the "Internet Reformation" increasingly reveals the melancholy truth.
Conclusion: What cannot be gainsaid is the PATTERN of deception that runs through the 20th century like a tumorous tide. It is difficult to face the consequences of such falsified "directed" history, but how much more dangerous and difficult not to?
Editor's Note: The language used in the above article was speculative (and noted as such), though some of feedbackers have taken this as a statement that we are sure NASA did not go to the moon. No. We are skeptical and remain so. We urge skepticism of all elite memes and NASA's man-to-the-moon chapter may be realistic ... or it may be the most successful meme of all. Exploring whether it is a meme, a dominant social theme, or not, is part of our brief. Shedding additional light on it casts illumination on other workings of the powers-that-be, which we shall continue to do.
l 
|
You must be a site member to submit suggested edits or post feedback. In addition to submitting edit suggestions and posting feedback, your Free Membership to The Daily Bell gives you access to our Member Zone where you will discover a plethora of other member benefits. Want to learn more? click here |
|||||
|
|
||||
 |
Posted by clark on 09/12/11 01:05 PM
A lot of People put a lot of effort into convincing others there's nothing unusual about the numerous large aircraft which have been flying over many communities. This latest observation seems a bit difficult to explain away:
I spent much of Labor Day relaxing on the back porch under mostly clear skies, my eyes focused on the sky. I saw One large aircraft the Entire day, and it was landing at my local airport.
Having spent some time in the past hunting ducks and geese I'm used to spotting small objects in the sky, so it's not like I simply didn't see any aircraft that might have been flying overhead, there just weren't any!
The day after Labor Day I spent most of the day outside from sunup until sundown and I didn't see a Single large aircraft in the clear blue skies above me. Not one!
If the large aircraft I have regularly observed in the past (often 12 every ten minutes, all day long) were commercial aircraft, certainly there should be at least one or two the day after Labor Day?
Don't you find that unusual?
That there are Zero aircraft the day after Labor Day, indeed - there have been fewer than three aircraft per day since the first of July - plainly indicates the numerous aircraft which had been routinely flying above in the past were Not commercial aircraft following regular flight paths.
Tuesday was the same as Monday,... on the following Sunday the sky was filled with large aircraft for a number of hours, their "persistent contrails" filling the sky, then all at once for the rest of the day there were no more aircraft.
Don't you find that unusual?
Also, it was interesting (and a bit of coincidence?) to see NASA put out the photos of the moon landing site taken by the LRO spacecraft, from 31 miles away I kind of expected to be able to see the tread marks left by the boots of the astronaugts.
So, are the flags still there, or not? This seems kind of conflicting:
"And for those interested in whether the planted American flags from the Apollo missions are still standing, Robinson said it's difficult to know for sure.
"I've looked around, and all I really see are the spots where the flag was planted," Robinson said.
With the moon's extreme hot and cold temperatures and ultraviolet environment, Robinson said it's highly unlikely that anything is left of the nylon flags after so many decades.
"If the flags are still there, they're probably in pretty rough shape," he said."
Click to view link
|
Posted by clark on 08/27/11 02:07 PM
Suppose these People were not going to remain quiet about chemtrails and H.A.R.R.P.? It kind of seems as if that could be the case, so here's those People who noticed, John Danforth?:
Truly a Bizarre Passenger list for Flight 77 that Crashed into the Pentagon (Article)
... "For a random collection of passengers, this is a very impressive manifest...
a senior scientist with the US Navy, retired Army. [12] A third-generation physicist whose work at the Navy was so classified that his family knew very little about what he did each day. They don't even know exactly why he was headed to Los Angeles on the doomed American Airlines Flight 77.
a Boeing engineer in Integrated Defense Systems; he served in the US Air Force for four years, and for the National Security Agency for 14 years. [36]
a director of program management at Raytheon, US Army (ret.) [28] who helped develop and build anti-radar technology for electronic warfare. Raytheon's website notes that they are leaders in every phase of the Precision Strike kill chain; are the world's leading organization at Missile Defense; provides state-of-the-art technology to detect, protect and respond to terrorism and provide Homeland Defense; and that their technology forms the eyes, ears and brains of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance systems, from the Predator to the Global Hawk.
a retired naval aviator who worked for Veridian Corp., a defense contractor, who was working with military aircraft and weapons systems [56] A Navy test pilot who worked on the development of the F18. 'He had done a number of black programs - which means top-secret,' said his son. 'We were given no details.'
an electrical engineer with defense contractor BAE Systems. [41] largest technical support supplier to the US Navy. BAE Systems is an industry leader in flight control systems, which are present on nearly every US military aircraft. BAE electronic warfare systems such as their jamming system are vital to the US Navy operations.
2 Boeing propulsion engineers: a lead Propulsion Engineer and a Project Manager with Boeing Satellite Systems, [32] and a lead engineer for Boeing Satellite Systems. [40]
a software architect with Lockheed Martin Corp., US Army (ret.). [42] A manager in the systems and software architecture department.
a Vice President for software development, EMSolutions and retired Lieutenant Commander, Navy. [18] He spent 20 years in the US Navy, where he developed high capacity signal processors, multi-processor application software and innovative signal processing algorithms. EMSolutions maintains a facility security clearance, and has contracts with Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) and BAE Systems.
a technical group manager at Xon Tech, a defense-related research and development firm [46] He previously worked as an engineer at the Naval Research Lab. Also a technical manager of Xon Tech [53].
a retired Navy Rear Admiral, former Navy pilot, and retired American Airlines pilot. [24]
a senior executive at the Defense Department. [29] A budget analyst/director of the programming and fiscal economics division who worked at the Pentagon.
a former Navy electronics technician worked as a Department of Defense contractor with Vrendenburg Co. in Washington [57]
managing partner and co-founder of Stratin Consulting. and retired Marine Corps Lieutenant and Vietnam War veteran [26]
a lawyer who had worked with the Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps. [49]
and of course, there was Barbara Olson, attorney, CNN Commentator and wife of the United States Solicitor General. [39]
... The odds against this being a random group of 53 American Airlines passengers are simply astronomical! There are more top secret security clearances here than in most medium-sized cities in America.
Especially astounding in this bizarre passenger list is the preponderance of Navy personnel amongst the 4 armed services, and the tilt toward propulsion and guidance systems amongst all of the possible secret technologies. It's almost as if someone put this list together thinking that Navy personnel were expendable - or needed to be expended."...
Click to view link
|
Posted by clark on 07/30/11 01:27 AM
Part and parcel to the subject of chemtrails and the wool being pulled over the eyes of the world by NASA, I wonder if American fundamentalism has been vaccinated out of the population?:
"...the army and CIA developed a plan to vaccinate Moslems to eliminate what they call 'the god gene.' To precipitate the vaccination program the army would release a disease such as flu. Then it would offer the vaccine to protect the population. The vaccine would render the potential freedom fighter harmless to Jewish and American aggressors, now essentially the same things."
Click to view link
"The army calls it 'Fun-vax,' which is designed to vaccinate against Islamic fundamentalism by altering the victim's DNA."
Click to view link
It seems that a bunch of Dr. Frankensteins have been unleashed upon the world?
 |
Posted by Zenbillionaire on 07/27/11 06:55 PM
Hey, either one of you know where I can buy a pigtail connector that fits a 56-1561 relay?
Make yourselves useful.
 |
Posted by NWO_FOE on 07/27/11 04:53 PM
I think it has become clear your feeling is right.
|
Posted by Zenbillionaire on 07/27/11 04:00 PM
"You have still not shown any evidence concerning your claim that you could run a LEM flight control simulator on a HP calculator in 1972"
Go watch TV Hunter.
|
Posted by memehunter on 07/27/11 03:59 PM
You have still not shown any evidence concerning your claim that you could run a LEM flight control simulator on a HP calculator in 1972. I have provided extensive evidence that nothing of the sort could have been attempted on these early HP calculators.
The rest is just empty rhetoric.
|
Posted by Zenbillionaire on 07/27/11 03:10 PM
"The games that could have been played on these machines could hardly have been anything like running "a LEM flight control simulator""
You were raised with a PS3 weren't you?
You may find this hard to believe, but before CRTs computers were connected to flashing lights. Some were red, some green and some amber. That's how we did things back in the day.
Hunter, I was there. The stories I tell are real. They may seem fantastic but they aren't. There was a time when real people crossed the desert on camels. I find the entire attempt to sweep the accomplishments of our ancestors vile in the extreme. You seem bent on justifying your lack of drive and achievement by tearing down the memory of your ancestors. This is a disease of the young men and it does not bode well for your future.
With any luck at all I'll be long dead before you discover your own uselessness. I pity the fate of my children because they were raised with a different ethic and I'm certain your kind will devour them.
|
Posted by memehunter on 07/27/11 03:00 PM
This is what you said:
"I didn't own my first HP scientific calculator until 1972 and at the time you could run a LEM flight simulator on it. I was a kid, meaning I had not yet reached the legal age of majority in my country of residence."
Again, we have not only the display issue (only one line), but also the issue of programming a simulator on a machine which could only run programs having at most 100 lines of code. In any case, I don't think that seeing some numbers on a one-line display showing the quantity of fuel and/or the altitude qualifies as a simulator.
There is also the issue of cost (the price of these calculators was between 5000$ to 10000$, a substantial amount of money in 1972). Also, how did you have access to a LEM flight control simulator as a kid?
I still believe I'm wasting my time and I remain "firmly unconvinced" if I may say so. At least I learned some interesting trivia about the first HP calculators...
|
Posted by Zenbillionaire on 07/27/11 02:46 PM
"It looks like my skepticism was justified after all."
No, it wasn't. The game simulated a LEM approach to the surface of the moon given some amount of fuel, an altitude, and user input burn periods.
I don't believe I said the LEM was actually controlled by an HP scientific calculator of the type you define. As you note, "calculator" and "computer" are terms that have no differentially distinct meanings. In truth, I'm not sure who built the computer that rode on the LEM.
What I am sure of is that an HP1000 with around 8K of memory has flown a C-141. This much I know. And I also know that I once ran a LEM flight simulator on an HP calculator.
|
Posted by memehunter on 07/27/11 02:39 PM
Thanks for the explanation.
It looks like my skepticism was justified after all. The games that could have been played on these machines could hardly have been anything like running "a LEM flight control simulator", at least not before 1979.
|
Posted by Zenbillionaire on 07/27/11 02:28 PM
"How did you play a game on these machines?"
Sorry, missed the question.
Now you mention it, I can't remember. It had to do with moving scrolling characters on the LED screen.
We also had a CPU utilization program called BONK that ran on the 16 LEDs on the front panel of a 1000. It's funny, after all this time even I find it hard to imagine a user interface that primitive.
|
Posted by Zenbillionaire on 07/27/11 02:22 PM
"these are described as "small computers", not calculators"
and the iPhone is described as a phone. Go figure.
|
Posted by memehunter on 07/27/11 02:12 PM
"The simulator was a game, like the primitive flight simulator games you ran on PC's. The goal was to not run out of fuel and crash."
How did you play a game on these machines (I am talking about the calculators now, not the HP1000)? The display shows only one line at a time.
Here is a picture of the display of a HP9830, a high-end calculator in 1972:
Click to view link
Here is a front view of a HP55, another one of the most sophisticated models in 1972:
Click to view link
The first HP calculators with a display that could conceivably used for playing games are the HP-80 series from 1979. And these are described as "small computers", not calculators.
"What reason would you have to believe anything I told you about my past?"
No particular reason. I was puzzled specifically by the idea that you could have run a flight simulator on a HP calculator as a kid, knowing that you were working for the NASA in the 1970s, especially after you recently added the detail that you had ten years of training in hand to hand combat.
|
Posted by Zenbillionaire on 07/27/11 01:52 PM
"I am skeptical of some of the claims you made on this thread."
It always comes down to this. You mentioned (sort of tongue in cheek) that I've had an interesting life. You don't know the half of it. I could write a book here but it would take a long time and this interface doesn't allow corrections once you push the post button. I can't write three paragraphs without making a mistake I only notice after I've sent it.
What reason would you have to believe anything I told you about my past? I'm not planning on publishing my Social Security number or anything.
|
Posted by Zenbillionaire on 07/27/11 01:17 PM
The simulator was a game, like the primitive flight simulator games you ran on PC's. The goal was to not run out of fuel and crash.
We used to use HP1000's to fly planes back then (real ones too, C-141 Starlifters), they had 8K core memory boards and paper tape loaders, not big iron.
|
Posted by memehunter on 07/27/11 01:06 PM
Well, from what I see, even the best 1972 HP models would not let you run a program of more than 100 lines in length.
Click to view link
Is this enough to run a LEM flight simulator? I don't think so. If I am wrong, I'd like to know how.
The point is that I am skeptical of some of the claims you made on this thread. I don't know about my character but I will say this: extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
|
Posted by Zenbillionaire on 07/27/11 12:41 PM
"Or did you complete your military training as a teenager? "
I have no training provided by the government of any nation. I do have traditional military training in hand to hand combat provided by a private school many years ago. That is what I meant to say, I didn't realize the sentence would be dissected in order to attempt a proof that I could not have used an HP scientific calculator as a child, but I should have expected it from someone who has made an avocation of finding conflict in other people's account of events. It's certainly within character.
You could have just asked I suppose, but I get the feeling you aren't going to believe the answer anyway. I didn't own my first HP scientific calculator until 1972 and at the time you could run a LEM flight simulator on it. I was a kid, meaning I had not yet reached the legal age of majority in my country of residence.
What was your point?
|
Posted by memehunter on 07/27/11 04:46 AM
Here is a list of the elements that made up the Primary System of the LEM Flight Control System:
Click to view link
"The Primary System is composed of the following units:
- A three gimbal Inertial Measurement Unit ( I M U ), which continuously measures spacecraft attitude and senses acceleration along its three axes. IMU gimbal angles, appropriately transformed, are displayed on the two
spacecraft 3-axis attitude indicators [ FDAI).
- A one-Dower Alignment Optical Telescope (AOT) through which navigational stars can be sighted to align the IMU.
- A Rendezvous Radar (RR), which measures range, range rate, and line-of-sight angle relative to the LEM by tracking a transponder on the CSM.
- A four beam doppler Lending Radar (LR), which senses velocity and altitude with respect to the lunar surface.
- A digital LEM Guidance Computer ( L G C ), which accepts inputs {ram the IMU, AOT, RR, LR, attitude controller, translation controller, and manual insertions on its own keyboard, and solves the navigation, guidance,
steering, and stabilization equations. It then sends out RCS on-off, descent engine throttle, and descent engine gimbal drive commands to control the spacecraft flight path."
Now, we are talking about the LEM flight control system itself here, not a simulator. But this gives an idea of the complexity of the task required. In my view, it is extremely unlikely that HP calculators could be used to program anything even approaching this level of complexity, at least not until the HP-28 series which were produced between 1986 and 1992 (and even in that case, I am skeptical that anyone would have tried to program a useful flight simulator using a HP-28 calculator - I am open to being proven wrong, though...).
Click to view link
|
Posted by memehunter on 07/27/11 04:04 AM
"Who am I? I'm a retired computer scientist that used to work for NASA back in the 70's. I was a member of the team that mapped the central parsec of our galaxy. I was the first person on earth to observe the re-entry of the Columbia at 178,000' doing mach 17 in full radio blackout off the coast of Oahu with my naked eyes. I have over 500 hours in highly experimental aircraft. I was aboard the flight that discovered the rings around Uranus (yes, you're supposed to laugh). But that isn't important."
"16 of my friends were killed in a NASA aircraft that collided on approach to Moffett Field in 1973. One of my friends was killed in a NASA helicopter that crashed in 1980, the other suffered permanent brain injury. I was personally involved in an accident at 42,000 feet halfway between Hawaii and California in a NASA aircraft that inadvertently caught fire."
"I have no military training other than ten or so years of hand to hand combat a long time ago. I apologize if the terminology sounded military, however NASA has a military structure and a fairly strong military presence, at least on the flight deck. It probably rubs off. "
You sure seem to have had a interesting life, Zen... Nothing wrong with that, of course.
"When I was a kid you could run a LEM flight control simulator on a programmable HP scientific calculator, it didn't require big iron."
Now, I would assume that you did your ten years of military training before working as a computer scientist for the NASA in the 70's. This would mean that, according to you, programmable HP scientific calculators could be used to run a LEM flight control simulator in the early 60s (correct me if I'm wrong)? Or did you complete your military training as a teenager?
This is the historical record regarding the first-ever HP calculator (please note that this first-ever HP calculator was introduced in 1968):
Click to view link
"The HP 9100A was Hewlett-Packard's first calculator. In the mid to late 1960's electronic four function fixed point calculators were brand new and typically cost $1000-$2500. In 1968 HP introduced the HP 9100A featuring:
Floating point math with a range of 10^-98 to 10^99
Log (natural and base 10)
Antilog (natural)
Square root
Trigonometric (including hyperbolic) functions and inverses
Vector addition/subtraction
Polar/rectangular conversion
Misc. features like 1/x, PI etc.
A logic system that could handle complex expressions (RPN)
Programmability
A magnetic card reader/writer
Options such as a printer and a plotter
The HP 9100, built with magnetic core memory, printed circuit board ROM, a CRT display (and not a single digital IC chip) provided industrial strength calculating in a machine that weighed 40 pounds and cost just under $5000. Hewlett-Packard had entered the young electronic calculator market in a big way. "
Now, it seems to me that this 40-pound behemoth might not have been able to handle a flight control simulator:
"The HP 9100A was introduced first with maximums of 16 storage registers and 196 program steps. The HP 9100B came later with maximums of 32 storage registers and 392 program steps. On both machines core was shared between registers and program steps. (The 9100B had two pages of core labeled + and -. Gotos were assumed to go to the current page unless a + or - preceded the address.) The HP 9100B also added subroutines, a dual program display, and a key to recall numbered registers into X. "
196 or even 392 program steps are enough to run a flight simulator? I don't think so, unless it would be an extremely simplified version. I've done some programming myself, by the way (though I don't claim any expertise in that field).
Yes, later machines added more memory and more capacities, but we have to keep in mind that this machine was introduced in 1968.
Have I finally found incontrovertible proof that Mr. Zenbillionaire is wasting our time, at least on this particular topic? I will be curious to read the eventual debunking that is sure to follow my post...
|
|
