I got this from a guy that used to use the HP 9845 calculator and thought
this group might be interested.
>
>On Thu, 29 Apr 1999, Joe wrote:
>> What kind of work did you do with the 9845? Do you still have anything
>> for them?
>
>Joe,
>
>There's no trace of anything to be found...not even for the HP 9000/520
>used to migrate some of my applications. Let's see if you'll regret
>asking me what I did with it? :-)
>
>I actually used the 9845B (Model T) for Space Shuttle flight support
>(STS-2 through STS-24). I worked at Rockwell International Space Systems
>Division in Downey, California (now owned by Boeing). I started out in
>1979 doing bean-counting work. I wrote BASIC programs that create bar
>charts, plots, and tabulated data for the Flight Systems Design and
>Performance department. My manager, Bill Schleich, was the one who
>developed the shuttle's roll maneuver shortly after lift-off.
>
>Most (99.9%) of the engineers were IBM/TSO die-hards because they were
>old Apollo guys. They considered the HP 9845 to be a toy, but they were
>really afraid of it. Some of those guys preferred to use a printable
>tele-type terminal over CRTs!
>
>On the first shuttle flight there was unexpected lofting of the vehicle
>that we didn't account for in our trajectory predictions. Finally an
>engineer named David Pearson was able to trace the problem down to us not
>having up-to-date atmospheric data (our mainframe trajectory analysis
>programs used montly weather tables).
>
>Bill Schleich was also Dave Pearson's manager and he appreciated the
>power and versatility of the microcomputer...it helped that I impressed
>him with fancy graphics on the internal thermal printer (mainframe
>hardcopies of graphics had to be trucked from Seal Beach - about 20 miles
>away).
>
>Previously, I crossed-over to doing some small engineering studies where
>I'd plot data, etc., using the 9845. But the big project was for the
>flight support task! There was a lady named Kathy O'Connor who did some
>cool graphics with the robotic arm against a stunning line-drawing of the
>shuttle in X-Y-Z drawings.
>
>Anyway, to shorten this story, we had the launch site send us FAXes of
>their weather balloon data (no FTP in those days) for weeks, days, hours,
>and up to 15 minutes before launch. We had an HP 9872A plotter that also
>had a digitizer sight. I wrote an interactive program to have an
>engineer align the FAX on the plotter's plate and digitize points along
>the different data lines.
>
>The points were stored in arrays and fed to a cubic-spline interpolation
>program to recreate the line with more (smoother) points. The output was
>formatted into lines to be uploaded to the IBM mainframe where our big
>number-crunching trajectory analysis (M-50) program ran...it was much too
>large for the 9845 to even dream of running.
>
>The data went out over a GTE 300-baud modem that was about as large as
>one of today's VCRs. HP provided the (BASIC) software to do the actual
>file transfer and communications with the mainframe. Someone else wrote
>the programs on the mainframe to capture the uploaded data for feeding
>into the M50 program.
>
>When the M50 finished, it put the data back into tabulated form and
>downloaded it, one line at a time, to the HP. I wrote a suite of
>programs that read in the captured data and parsed it into data arrays
>which were plotted on the CRT for quick "DUMP GRAPHICS" snap-shots. We
>also used the 9872 4-color plotter for comparison plots but the thermal
>printer plots were needed quickly.
>
>Believe it or not, the process was fast enough that we once actually had
>plots for T-15minute winds in time to run downstairs in Rockwell's
>mission control room (3rd or 4th backup to NASA's MC in Houston) and see
>a live launch on live NASA video feeds, including infra reds.
>
>After about the 5th shuttle flight, I was no longer on-call and other
>engineers (all older than me because I was only 21 in 1981...I started
>programming professionally right out of high school) were following my
>procedures. I continued to make modifications for new features, etc.,
>until the 10th flight...I wrote every single byte of code for that suite
>of programs except for the package to communicate over the modem!
>
>I had transferred to Seal Beach a few flights before Challenger
>exploded. When I heard about it, I called one of the engineers
>responsible for the "Day of Launch Flight Support Effort" and he told me
>that that was the first flight that they didn't run the program (except
>for STS-1 of course because we didn't know we needed it).
>
>They wouldn't have seen anything strange even if they had run the
>program...but I like to imagine that my code would've warned them! :-)
>
>It's been a long time since I had a chance to brag about that. Thanks
>for asking. BTW, I was the system administrator for that particular
>9845. There were at least 3 others managed by different groups. I had
>access anytime I wanted or needed it. As a result, I ignored the Apple
>II, IBM PC, etc., until I migrated to the HP 9000/520.
>
>But even with the 9000/520 being such a step up, I bought an Amiga in
>1986 and have been in love with Amigas ever since!
>
>Visit http://www.amiga.com or http://www.amiga.de if the first one is
>down.
>
>Later,
>David
>
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>
Received on Fri Apr 30 1999 - 07:56:58 BST