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posted by martyb on Saturday July 20 2019, @12:58AM   Printer-friendly
from the Women-in-Programming dept.

Story at CNN:

The first footsteps on the moon belonged to two men, but they may never have made it there if not for Margaret Hamilton.

The software engineer developed the onboard computer programs that powered NASA's Apollo missions, including the 1969 moon landing.

So, it's only fitting that in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, a portrait of the bespectacled pioneer reflected the light of the moon.

Not just Hidden Figures? Click on the full article to see the display.

Hamilton effectively invented the term "software engineer" with her work developing the Apollo guidance computer, the lifeline for astronauts that controlled the spacecraft, Google said in announcing the artistic honor.

She regularly brought her young daughter, Lauren, to work with her on weekends, according to the search giant. Lauren played in the simulator that her mother built to test in-flight programs and inadvertently led Hamilton to rethink her strategy.

Lauren once crashed the simulator, ending the mission prematurely by hitting a button while the craft was in flight.

So, Hamilton programmed backstops to prevent an astronaut from doing the same midflight, a mistake that would yield far more dire consequences in space, Google says.

"There was no second chance. We knew that," Hamilton wrote in 2009 for MIT. "We had to find a way and we did."

Whatever you do, do not push the big red button, M'kay?

See also: These 6 Accidents Nearly Derailed Apollo 11's Mission to the Moon
How to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 20 2019, @02:59AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 20 2019, @02:59AM (#869266)

    It was all men, men who weren't even born out of a woman!