Tech of the 60s: Computer Systems for Ground Control & More

[LT72884]

I am an aerospace engineering student. I have been watching the show "The RIght Stuff" and i have a question

what kind of computer systems existed in 1960 that allowed ground control to control the capsule and atlas rocket?

how were they able to monitor flight path, heart rythms of the astronauts, and all that stuff? what kind of network existed then?

thanks. Just really want to know

 

[mpresic3]

The computers were large mainframes. I think the IBM 360 was operational in 1969. Control Data had computers. I heard about the NORC. you can look all these up. The control was needed to be done onboard, with inertial guidance systems, and control laws implemented. The software was probably loaded into the electronics. I know there are articles about the Apollo guidance computer on the internet. The Mercury program was a few years more primitive.
I do not think the ground controlled the capsule or rocket. The ground was probably for monitoring and trajectory corrections (possibly handled by astronauts). I do not see why the medical monitoring was particularly demanding, though I am sure it is easier today. Monitoring spacecraft was done by radio frequencies like dishes (radio telescopes) I presume. They did not have GPS, or satellite navigation or even satellite telecommunication.

 

[Tom.G]

If I recall correctly, in 1960 the only addressable network of consequence was the Telephone network, although I suppose a case could be made for Amateur Radio.

The Internet is an offshoot of ARPA Net (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, part of the U.S. Defense Department). It was funded in 1966 and initially used for communication between a few Universities.

In the mid-to-late 1970's the network was sort-of/mostly functional for somewhat wider, but still restricted, use. Access was thru a Teletype machine at ten characters per second, using an acoustic modem over the dial-up phone network. The modem could actually handle data at 30 characters per second using Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) in tha audio band.

The data from the spacecraft were received by large parabolic dish radio antennas scattered around the globe and relayed to Mission Control. These same antennas could transmit to the spacecraft .

Integrated Circuits (IC's) were invented in 1958 and first used by the military in a computer in 1961. Prior to that, computers used discrete Transistors (earlier, vacuum tubes) and Core Memory (Google it). The microprocessor didn't come along until 1971 when Intel invented the 4004 microprocessor, original for a desktop calculator.

IBM 7094-11 computers were initially used at the Flight Center and later replaced with the IBM 360, model 75. The Saturn rocket flight computers were designed by NASA and built by IBM.

edit:
From a rather foggy memory, there were 4 flight computers on the space capsule. Three were used for a 2-out-of-3 vote for capsule control/navigation, and the fourth was a 'Last Resort, Get Me Home' device.
/edit:

Flight path was monitored with RADAR, and probably visual navigation by the astronauts using the same method as seafarers from centuries ago did, 'shooting the stars' (using an Astrolab, Google it).

I guess this ended up a stream-of-consciousness post!
Oh well, hope it helps a little.

A few references for the above:
https://www.google.com/search?&q=define+arpanet
https://www.google.com/search?&q=what+was+the+first+integrated+circuit+used+in
https://www.google.com/search?&q=first+microprocessor+1971
edit:
https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/apollo/breakthroughs/
/edit:

Cheers,
Tom

p.s. I see @mpresic3 came in with some overviews while I was typing this. Thanks!

 

[Baluncore]

what kind of computer systems existed in 1960 that allowed ground control to control the capsule and atlas rocket?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_mainframe#First_and_second_generation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_large_systems

how were they able to monitor flight path, heart rythms of the astronauts, and all that stuff? what kind of network existed then?

The flightpath was tracked by radar, while data was transmitted over VHF radio links with maybe 16 channels, FSK for digital, and FM modulated sub-carriers for analogue.

 

[Borek]

what kind of computer systems existed in 1960 that allowed ground control to control the capsule and atlas rocket?

how were they able to monitor flight path, heart rythms of the astronauts, and all that stuff? what kind of network existed then?

I think you are making a mistake by assuming it was all done with earlier versions of computers as we known them. I would bet huge part of all that was implemented using analog devices and analog systems, so with a completely different technology.

 

[tech99]

I think you are making a mistake by assuming it was all done with earlier versions of computers as we known them. I would bet huge part of all that was implemented using analog devices and analog systems, so with a completely different technology.

It is only recently that the first solution to any problem has been to use a computer interface. For instance, video on computers first became common with arcade games in the '80s. Video compression only arrived in the '90s, and the Internet for most people in 2000.
Technology is subject to fashion trends, as we can see from the past. 1800 everyone understood horses, everything had to be horse. Then everything had to be steam operated from 1850, then cars and radio from 1920. Meanwhile, sailing ship technology carried nearly all international trade up until 1900. There are many solutions to most problems and we adopt that which is currently commonplace and foremost in our minds
To view heart action at a distance, we could use an analogue sensor via an analogue communication link and displayed on a long persistence CRT. In a similar way, the Moon landing was televised using a slow scan analogue system, with a long persistence tube.

 

[berkeman]

I have been watching the show "The RIght Stuff"

They did not have GPS, or satellite navigation or even satellite telecommunication.

Hence the reason for the radio relay scene in Australia in the movie...

 

[Klystron]

One can also examine technological limitations and bottlenecks facing 1960's STEM people.

Data storage remained a critical factor throughout most of the 20^th Century. Restricted bandwidth and relative signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) greatly inhibited real-time data transmission.

Scientists wired the Mercury astronauts 'up the gazoo' to paraphrase Gus Grissom, but deemed themselves lucky to collect a few bins of paper tape from an entire mission. Mission critical data prioritized paltry RF bandwidth shared with medically relevant data.

The story goes that Chris Kraft once rebuked a medical doctor at NASA Houston during a communication intermission that first priority was to fly the (vehicle) then worry about the (astronaut)'s heart beat.

 

[LT72884]

AWESOME AWESOME INFO! thank you all for posting. i will be reading it all again. I come from a bachelors in network engineering (CCNP, linux RHCT) and i know up to a certain point with tech. I then switched to aerospae engineering after i received that bachelors but still never learned about the 60s tech. I am only on episode 3 of the show.

Im surprised radar could reach that far into and out of the atmosphere to track an orbit. In a book i read a while back about TCP/IP, it was actually created to launch nuclear weapons during the cold war, according to this author.

did the capsules have any type of screen in them to see their trajectory or was it all just drawn up on paper and pencil? I have seen hidden figures where they do the math for the trajectory and they give Glenn the coordinates. what did he do with the coordinates from there? How did he know where that coordinate was in space?

 

[Astronuc]

The Mercury spacecraft did not have onboard computers. Gemini was the first.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_Guidance_Computer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_IBM#IBM_Federal_Systems_Division_(FSD) - used IBM mainframes
https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/space/space_reference.html

https://history.nasa.gov/computers/Part1.html

AIAA and IEEE probably have many references, i.e., journal articles and textbooks, on early computer systems and avionics.

 

[Baluncore]

The available computers are listed here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_transistorized_computers

I was once told there were two duplicate Burroughs computers that did the orbital navigation calculations for the flights. They might have been early B5000 or B5500 in 1964.
Another possibility was the 1957 Burroughs SM-65 Atlas ICBM Guidance Computer MOD1, AN/GSQ-33
http://gallery.bostonradio.org/2011-02/cape-tour/index.html
Click on the pictures.

 

[Klystron]

I enjoyed exploring nooks and crannies around NASA Ames while taking breaks from arduous programming tasks. I found long banks of once state-of-the-art computers below 'my' then-new VAX computers installed in the Unitary Plan wind tunnels control room. The resident data tech called them "Beckmans" and showed me (literal) bins containing curls of paper tape punched with hex data from the last run.

I learned they were programmed by changing wiring, sometimes involving soldering components between missions to achieve optimum results. Luckily, we installed RS-232 interfaces on the VAX's for multiple terminals as I am probably the worst solderer ever permitted to manage complex electronics.

Modern Beckman has morphed into Life Science fields.

 

[Borek]

View attachment 280455

LOL, with that handle on side looks like some early one-armed bandit

 

[LT72884]

I enjoyed exploring nooks and crannies around NASA Ames while taking breaks from arduous programming tasks. I found long banks of once state-of-the-art computers below 'my' then-new VAX computers installed in the Unitary Plan wind tunnels control room. The resident data tech called them "Beckmans" and showed me (literal) bins containing curls of paper tape punched with hex data from the last run.

View attachment 280455

I learned they were programmed by changing wiring, sometimes involving soldering components between missions to achieve optimum results. Luckily, we installed RS-232 interfaces on the VAX's for multiple terminals as I am probably the worst solderer ever permitted to manage complex electronics.

Modern Beckman has morphed into Life Science fields.

That is so cool. thanks for posting this pic. This stuff is so cool. i wish it was taught more in classes.

 

[Tom.G]

LOL, with that handle on side looks like some early one-armed bandit

That 'Handle' would be the latch that holds in/ejects the plug-board (patch-panel).
That rats nest of wires on the front in the plug-board is the programming for that analog computer.

The knobs the operator is twiddling are 10-turn potentiometers (Helipots) that set the gain for the amplifier stages. In the mid 1960's the pots were 0.1% linearity for about $60 - $80 each. The amplifiers (vacuum tube Op-Amps most likely) can be connected as amplifiers, integrators, differentiators, or just buffers between stages. Fixed Multipliers and dividers in the equations are handled by setting the pots and accounting for scaling.

Multiplying and Dividing by variables was with more complex and dedicated stages, often with one variable driving a motor that turned a pot affecting the gain of the other variable. Not quit as simple to use as the DIV instruction of the computer you are reading this on! Those stages usually required more maintenance too.

The roll around cart below the chalk board is a Strip Chart Recorder used to graph the output of calculations.

Unfortunately the original photo was stored as a .jpg file at one point in its life; thus there is not enough info retained to enhance and read the make/model of the computer.

Enough blathering,
Tom

 

[Klystron]

Thanks @Tom.G for the detailed descriptions. The Beckmans I encountered, stored in an operational configuration in case they were needed, were operated through the 1970's. I found the 1960's era photo online. I like the circuit diagrams on the blackboard and the programmer's period clothing.

The programmer has 'dressed down' according to the strict dress codes of that era; rather like Woz wearing a Who concert T-shirt or skinny Steve Jobs dressed in a black turtleneck and Gap pants. Casual.

 

[marcusl]

Here is an article on the Apollo Command Computer. It was state of the art for mid-1960s and advanced enough to be used on manned US missions until 1975.
https://web.mit.edu/aeroastro/news/magazine/aeroastro6/mit-apollo.html

 

[Tom.G]

Here is a video about the 1969 Apollo Guidance Computer and some details of the Mission and Spacecraft. Moderately interesting, some of the other links on the YouTube page look interesting too.

<iframe width="672" height="378" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/B1J2RMorJXM" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Cheers,
Tom