NASA Computers 1957-1959 IBM 704 - VANGUARD SATELLITE Launch "Science in Space" (Burroughs Datatron)

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Computer History Archives Project ("CHAP")

2 жыл бұрын

1960 film from the National Academy of Sciences focuses on the 1957 to 1959 time period and the developments in the U.S. Space exploration activities especially the early Satellite Program and Vanguard Project. Project Vanguard was a program managed by the United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), established to launch the first artificial satellite into Earth orbit using a Vanguard rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Vanguard rockets were used by Project Vanguard from 1957 to 1959.
In response to the Soviet Russia launch of Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, the U.S. increased its funding and research into space satellites and related technologies. Numerous launches were attempted including the unfortunate televised failure of Vanguard TV3 on December 6, 1957. On March 17, 1958, Vanguard 1 was successfully launched into earth orbit.
Space Race and Digital Computers - - - - -
From an historical perspective, this time period was one of tremendous growth in the early digital computer field. Calculations for launch of spacecraft and determining orbital trajectories required high powered computers, along with sophisticated tracking equipment.
This film shows several early computers in use at that time.
About the Computers Seen in this film - - - - - - -
Time index: 15:50
IBM 704 Scientific Computer
IBM 704 Data Processing Machine was introduced by IBM in 1954. It was the first mass-produced computer with floating-point arithmetic hardware. It was designed for scientific and engineering applications. The 704 was a large-scale, vacuum-tube based, high-speed electronic, stored program calculator. It used core memory rather than Williams tubes. IBM produced 123 of the model 704 computers between 1955 and 1960.
Related 704 peripheral equipment included the 711 Punched Card Reader, 716 Alphabetic Printer, 721 Punched Card Recorder, 727 Magnetic Tape Units and 753 Tape Control Unit, 733 Magnetic Drum Reader and Recorder, and 737 Magnetic Core Storage Unit.
The US Navy utilized the IBM 704 to receive and analyze telemetry data from the Vanguard satellite to calculate and predict the real time orbit of Vanguard. (The 704 was also used by the U.S. to track the orbit of Sputnik.)
According to IBM Archives, in 1958, an IBM 705 computer at IBM's Vanguard Computing Center aided in the launch and tracking of Explorer I, the first non-Soviet Earth satellite. The satellite disclosed evidence of Earth-circling radiation belts. The 705 data processing system was a powerful magnetic tape computer capable of 1,364,000 logical decisions a minute.
Burroughs Electrodata “Datatron”
Burroughs “Datatron” computer (seen only very briefly in the film) was introduced in 1954 by Electrodata Corporation. Burroughs Corporation acquired Electrodata in 1966 and marketed the Datatron computer as part of the Burroughs line.
Although initially successful, both the IBM 704 and the Burroughs Datatron computers were essentially becoming obsolete technology by 1960 when this film was released. They continued to be used by many organizations into the 1960’s. However, they were no longer manufactured as newer faster machines became available. (Note: Burroughs acquired Sperry Corporation in 1986 and formed UNISYS, which now owns all Burroughs computer copyrights.)
IBM Archives: The IBM 704
www.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhib...
Facts about the Burroughs Datatron (ElectroData)
tjsawyer.com/B205home.php
Article: Tracking the Man-Made Satellite
www.rfcafe.com/references/rad...
Vanguard - A History (NASA publication)
history.nasa.gov/SP-4202/toc2...
Many thanks to Speakeasy Archives for digital transfer of original film
www.speakeasyarchives.com
Uploaded for educational use and historical review and comment only.

Пікірлер: 82

@stephanweinberger 2 жыл бұрын

It's really interesting to see the Soviet achievements mentioned as equally important to the US's in a film of that era.

@jakec9441 2 жыл бұрын

I remember watching this films like this in summer school on film projector in the late '80s. The building was built in the 1930's, had no air conditioning and when it was too hot to be upstairs we'd be brought down into the basement and shown films like this. They knocked that school down a couple of years later. In that school's life it saw the birth of computers and the internet. Seeing films like this reminds me of the musky smell of a cool basement.

@KaliferDeil 2 жыл бұрын

Brings back memories. The IBM704 was the first computer I wrote a program for in Fortran II.

@wrightmf Жыл бұрын

punch cards?

@KaliferDeil Жыл бұрын

@@wrightmf Absolutely! Drawers full of them!

@lllbutcher 3 ай бұрын

@@KaliferDeil Same here. How many people remember the "frequency" keyword in Fortran II on the 704?

@robharding4028 2 жыл бұрын

I was born in 57, and this technology is amazing for the time, I may be a few years older now, and things have moved on at an alarming rate, So I say, good luck to the future generations of space explorers. I will not be here.But I wish you luck all the same, For without exploration, we are dead. be here,

@favesongslist 2 жыл бұрын

I was born in 58; I was old enough to appreciate the early Moon probes and the Manned landings. Then had to wait 50 years for SpaceX to happen; to jump start Mars again, that I hope we both will see in what remains of our lives. BTW Who on Earth downvoted this!!!

@TurpInTexas 2 жыл бұрын

The optimism of scientists in those days was so refreshing, I also found it amusing to see how their predictions for the future played out so far. Thanks for posting the video. It was certainly a nice trip down memory lane.

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject 2 жыл бұрын

Hi Jimmyturpin, thank you for the kind words. Glad you liked it. ~ Victor

@RottnRobbie 2 жыл бұрын

Primarily feeding the algorithm, but also... Thank you. I'm basically a child of the space age, having been born the same year that Sputnik 1 launched. I was only 3 years old when this movie was released, but I grew up obsessed with the manned missions pretty much from the age of 6 (so 1963) on up. So wonderful to see some of the early history that was happening before I was aware of it.

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks again. Glad you enjoyed this. I can understand and share your obsession with early manned space missions. The 1960's were an exciting time without a doubt. I felt a real loss when they downsized NASA... The Space program helped keep many people focused on space and the future, with a sense of hope. ~ Victor

@diracflux 2 жыл бұрын

Very interesting to see the electronic components being assembled for the early satellites.

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject 2 жыл бұрын

Hi PM, and it doesn't look like they used "clean rooms" for much of the assembly, but perhaps it wasn't as critical at that time. ~ VK

@1diode 2 жыл бұрын

Yes, Very hobby ish with the flannel shirts and bare hands

@airborne2876 2 жыл бұрын

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject I imagine clean rooms weren't needed because of the lack of precision in the instrumentation. A peice of dust wont hardly effect being on the inside of an electronic device back in the 50s just because how large and imprecise the electronics were then. Relative to today's electronics

@atomicforcegaming2867 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you !

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject 2 жыл бұрын

You are very welcome! ~

@frankowalker4662 2 жыл бұрын

We have a lot to thank those engineers for. Very interesting film, Thank you.

@Hal9526 2 жыл бұрын

I'm glad that Soviet achievements were duly acknowledged in this film, despite the cold-war mentality of the era.

@dalecomer5951 2 жыл бұрын

"Produced in Association with WGBH Cambridge, Mass." The music for the film was composed by a very notable local musician and composer in the Boston area. Check out the acknowledgements and participants in the production. It"s almost like an episode of _Nova_ before there was _Nova_ .

@eddiejones.redvees 2 жыл бұрын

The control station looks very analog back then

@qzorn4440 2 жыл бұрын

this so amazing how much was accomplished with basic technology... waste no computer logic and work with devices like the slide rule... even today this film is a great learning aid..😀

@1diode 2 жыл бұрын

I loved 23:43 where the observers ducked down during the rocket launch

@pantherplatform 2 жыл бұрын

I love these old films.

@ldchappell1 2 жыл бұрын

Those early failures in the American space program proved that we weren't ready. Many people were upset about the Soviets beating us in space and the _Sputnik_ satellite made Americans paranoid about Soviet domination in space and other sciences.

@favesongslist 2 жыл бұрын

WOW what an awesome video TY so much for up loading. This is a great introduction to 'Why Space'

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject 2 жыл бұрын

Hi Timothy, Glad you enjoyed it! ~ Victor

@utah133 2 жыл бұрын

I was 7 when Sputnik launched, old enough to remember it well. I recall my elders expressing concern that the Russians beat us to space. The race was on!

@AlexPayneKU 2 жыл бұрын

Спасибо! Очень интересно!

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject 2 жыл бұрын

(trans: "Thanks! Very interesting!") Thank you. Glad you enjoyed it!

@DrTWG 2 ай бұрын

Great stuff .

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject 2 ай бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it.

@nonconsensualopinion 2 жыл бұрын

Where would films like this typically have been shown? Movie theaters as pre-shows? Television as a special? I'm trying to get a sense of what the general public's exposure would have been to content like this. Thanks!

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject 2 жыл бұрын

Hi Aaron, great question. This particular film, we believe, would have been shown to multiple types of audiences. It was produced for the National Academy of Sciences and was part of an educational program for the IGY (International Geophysical Year, 1 July 1957 to 31 December 1958) educational programs. If you "google" the IGY, you will see why films of this type were important during that time period. It would have been shown publicly as wall as to educational institutions. It would have received wide exposure, during that time period, but would become out of date technically within just a few years, as U.S. and Soviet space programs accelerated in the 1960's. Thanks for asking. Others have probably wondered the same. ~ Victor, at CHAP

@HAPPY-kv1fs 2 жыл бұрын

17:00 So the earth is pear shaped. Cool.

@zuutlmna 2 жыл бұрын

This is one of the big advantages of many community ("junior") colleges. The JC I attended owned an IBM 1130 mainframe for engineering, science and math, and a System 3 for more generalized work. Not only were students allowed direct hands-on access of those computers, it was required. Meanwhile, the state college allowed no such student use of their computers. Yet the cost of transferable lower division units at the junior college was quite less, compared to that of the state college. The ONLY thing that I thought was superior at the state college, was the dorm food. For quality lower division, in my opinion, JC is where to be!! Or at least it was back-in-the-day when I attended.

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject 2 жыл бұрын

Hi Carl, a very interesting observation, thanks very much! ~

@josugambee3701 2 жыл бұрын

In the 50's, things slowed up instead of down.

@stephenfoster9009 2 жыл бұрын

I thought this was about IBMs computer

@nickv1008 2 жыл бұрын

If you told them that one day multiple "computers" would be launched into space, that's just crazy talk, what a laugh!

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Жыл бұрын

PLEASE JOIN US in Preserving Computer History with a small contribution to our channel. www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LCNS584PPN28E Your contribution greatly helps us continue to bring you educational, historical, vintage computing topics. Thank you! ~ Computer History Archives Project

@nicholasmaude6906 2 жыл бұрын

For each extra pound of satellite weight 7.5 pounds of rocket were needed NOT hundreds.

@wrightmf Жыл бұрын

While US was second place in putting satellite into orbit, it was the first to discover the radiation belts and named after the PI, Van Allen. I read that it was first puzzling of changes in radiation during the orbits (too lazy to find a source, I'm sure it is out there). After much analyzing (yep, bunch of guys with slide rules, pencil and paper, and smoking cigarettes) it was then determined to be areas of particles trapped in earth's magnetic field. I may later trace that down to find out how long it took, what was their first impression reviewing the data. This film also showed telemetry data is not like what we have now where everything is conveniently labeled with units. It's all noise making squiggly lines on long sheets of paper. Ugh, there probably was times when the paper ran out during a pass, or plenty of paper but the pen went dry or someone forgot to turn on the feed button. Ah, the wonders of human foibles among modern space age technology. James Van Allen born in 1914, died in 2006. Imagine getting to participate and witness so much of the space program! I also read Soviets could have been first to detect these belts of radiation, story from a book or webpage is a satellite tape recorder failed. I remember the article mentioned they wanted to do additional tests prior to launch but the engineer for the recorder insisted it is guaranteed to work.

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Жыл бұрын

Interesting info. Never thought about the pen running out of ink during the recording phase. I guess they'd have to have someone in charge of monitoring and replacing the pens, or lose valuable data! ~ VK

@wrightmf Жыл бұрын

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject In those days pretty much everything was new, never done before, so lots of things can go wrong. Years ago, I attended a management class that had an older engineer and program manager who worked on early programs such as Ranger. That had all sorts of problems but noticed these days failures that can doom missions are infrequent. This guy said it is heritage of experience.

@filemoff 2 жыл бұрын

Indonesia mana suaranya

@user-hj5nr3wy5w 2 жыл бұрын

Everything is so ho hum these days. Those days were truely groundbreaking.

@d.stamand 2 жыл бұрын

To the moon

@jimwinchester339 2 жыл бұрын

This video has almos nothing to do with an IBM 704.

@danielweir5867 2 жыл бұрын

But it was very interesting nonetheless ... and by 1960, we found out via the deep-space satellites that the moon wasn't made of green cheese. Oh well ...

@ataricom 2 жыл бұрын

We used to think that the earth is pear shaped?

@DSC800 2 жыл бұрын

gravity makes it wider at the bottom

@k1ross 2 жыл бұрын

"And that, my liege, is how we know the Earth to be banana-shaped." "This new science amazes me, Bedevere."

@RottnRobbie 2 жыл бұрын

@@k1ross Ni!

@thesteelrodent1796 Жыл бұрын

5:41 they clearly didn't use enough struts ;)

@RottnRobbie 2 жыл бұрын

After having multiple replies disappear, I'll try one last time and post this information as a new comment: It seems the number in the movie of 10,000 tons per day of cosmic dust was wrong. NASA's current estimate for cosmic dust landing on Earth is more like 14 tons per day (they say 5200 tons per year). And the European Space Agency estimates that about 100 tons (90 metric tons) of atmosphere escape into space each day. So Earth's mass is apparently decreasing by about 86 tons per day.

@typograf62 2 жыл бұрын

At 17:27 looks very much like reused German radar dishes.

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject 2 жыл бұрын

That is an interesting observation! Thanks! ~ Victor

@dalecomer5951 2 жыл бұрын

The two dishes in the foreground are probably early to mid-WWII U.S. Navy radar antenna dishes for a large ship like a battleship or aircraft carrier. I've seen photos of smaller dishes of the same style built for both the U.S Army and Navy during WWII. The heavy duty yoke mount is typical for the U.S Navy.

@typograf62 2 жыл бұрын

@@dalecomer5951 Have a look at the German Würzburg Riese, it looks quite identical to the dishes in the movie. Look at the support of the dish grid. It also had a yoke mount, but that might not have been reused. I cannot see that.

@dalecomer5951 2 жыл бұрын

@@typograf62 The large Würzburg dish is similar in size and shape but the detail structure of the dish and mount is quite different. There is a section in the Wikipedia article on the Würzburg radars about post-war use and there is no mention of any being used by the U.S. The U.S. Navy SK-2 was used through most of WWII on aircraft carriers and is about the same size as the two dishes in the film. However, the more I look it seems probable that those dishes are post-war designs.

@vile105 2 жыл бұрын

2019 U S A

@SusanAmberBruce 2 жыл бұрын

10,000 tons of microparticles every day, how does that affect gravity over time?

@RottnRobbie 2 жыл бұрын

An easy lookup and some calculator math says it would have no measurable effect at all. Wikipedia gives the mass of the Earth as 5.97-something times 10 to the power of 24 (10**24) kilograms. That converts to approximately 65,808,000,000,000,000,000,000 (6.5808 X 10**22) tons. 10,000 tons a day for a billion years adds up to around 3,652,500,000,000,000 (3.652 X 10**15) tons. Which would add less than 0.000006% to the mass of the earth.

@iwh7 2 жыл бұрын

i would suspect, more mass = stronger gravity. dont think anything that low can escape earths gravity pull. so we as a planet are getting heavier

@bgbthabun627 2 жыл бұрын

@@RottnRobbie plus the amount of mass that earth loses every day from its atmosphere!

@favesongslist 2 жыл бұрын

@@bgbthabun627 minus not plus :) What a great video so glad I watched it.

@zeproo 2 жыл бұрын

Guidance systems ? how

@lwilton 2 жыл бұрын

What are you asking? Did early rockets and satellites have guidance systems? Yes. What did they use to determine position? Mostly gyroscopes and sun/star trackers.

@crazyedo9979 2 жыл бұрын

E.g. gyroscopes made of plywood. Ingenious inventions which made the V2 rocket ( ancestor of all liquid fuel space rockets) operational. Interesting facts about that are written in the book "Peenemünde West" . Greetings.😁

@RottnRobbie 2 жыл бұрын

I've had two replies to other comments deleted (so far) for no reason I can figure out. This comment is a test to see if it also gets deleted. (Edit - obviously, it didn't get deleted)

@favesongslist 2 жыл бұрын

I find if I try to include links then my comments get deleted within 20 seconds, this happened after I posted a link about Covid. KZfaq censorship!!!

@RottnRobbie 2 жыл бұрын

@@favesongslist Thanks for the feedback. I thought that might have had something to do with the first one that got deleted, but I made sure that my second reply didn't have any links in it, and it disappeared as well.

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject 2 жыл бұрын

Hi Canadian RobJ, just to chime in here, YT can remove comments before we even see them. I don't know what their criteria are for doing that. (It is probably an AI application that does that for them).

@RottnRobbie 2 жыл бұрын

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Appreciate the chime :) I always assumed it was a bot doing the deleting. I did search the YT FAQs, and all they suggest is that it might've been routed to the creators 'possible spam' folder. But even they say they can't predict what might cause a post to be flagged as spam like.

@wsg4847 2 жыл бұрын

YT will sometimes delete all comments I make, even if it's just a test letter. Then it'll start allowing them again. I used to think I was being censored, but since it's sporadic it may just be a glitch.