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from the kids-ask-'what-is-a-sliderule'? dept.
Ars Technica has a story and a link to the trailer of an upcoming movie, Hidden Figures which is due in theaters on Friday, January 13, 2017.
This movie has everything that a nerd could possibly desire: spaceships, astronauts, and a group of brilliant mathematicians who made NASA's Apollo mission possible.
Hidden Figures focuses on the achievements of Katherine Johnson (played by Taraji Henson from Person of Interest and Empire), winner of the 2015 National Medal of Freedom. Johnson, now retired, was a mathematician at NASA whose work helped plot the trajectories of orbiting spacecraft. The movie is your classic "nerd genius makes good" tale, as teachers discover the young Johnson's incredible math skills that eventually led to her meteoric rise, including college at the age of 15. She was so brilliant that NASA hired her out of graduate school in the 1950s—even though she lived at a time when black women were rarely welcomed into the science and engineering professions.
[...] As anyone who has ever watched NASA TV during a Mars landing knows, a spaceship is only as good as its makers. There is intense drama going on behind the scenes during every flight and landing, and that's why Hidden Figures looks like such a great ride. The movie hits theaters on January 13, 2017.
I am struggling to fathom having to perform manual calculations of orbital trajectories all day — with nothing more than paper, pencil, and a slide rule — and knowing that if you make an error, there's a good chance something is going to go BOOM and probably take some lives with it. Gives fresh meaning to the term meeting a deadline.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday August 16 2016, @10:12PM
After all, the reason NASA won the Space Race was that their German scientists were smarter than the Soviet's German scientists.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by jelizondo on Wednesday August 17 2016, @12:51AM
If by won you mean the good ol' U.S. of A. has to use russian rockets to get stuff into space and has to pay Russia to ferry astronauts to the space station, then, yeah, win we did.
Sorry, pal. Stop watching Fox and face reality.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday August 17 2016, @02:09PM
We did win the race. We just stopped training afterwards and are now flabby bastards.
Whereas the Soviet Union kept paying their gym fees until they went bankrupt, but continued exercising at home and are still relatively in shape.
(cue Rocky II music)
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday August 17 2016, @02:18PM
Come to think of it, the USSR actually beat us to every space milestone except a man on the moon. First satellite, first dude in space, first orbit, first hard landing on the moon, first soft landing on the moon...
Although apparently it took them like 8 tries to get their first moon impact. Nobody said they were efficient ;)
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"