*opens door very slowly*
*cautiously steps into tumblr*
*dusts off cobwebs*
Hello! As I’ve said for the past few months, it’s been very quiescent around here, but hopefully that will change imminently, as my sabbatical year ramps up! Luckily tumblr’s monthly archive helped bring me over (or through?) the potential barrier and twitter gave me a very good reason to post today.
This stunning artwork, titled “Margaret’s Moon”, was made by Dr. Jamie Molaro (aka Spacejammie), and I’ll just post her own description:
This piece was made using data from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft. The topography is the same as used in The Book of Moon, though with fewer layers. The text on the pages is original source code for the Apollo 11 guidance computer for the command and lunar modules. The code was written by NASA computer scientist Margaret Hamilton in 1969. It was during this project that she invented the term “software engineering” to describe the process of writing code.
Check out more photos of “Margaret’s Moon” on Jamie’s website. We’ve also featured Margaret Hamilton and her work immortalized on a scarf and as a LEGO mini-fig.
Check out other pieces (or commission your own! “Custom topography and papers are available upon request.“) at Jamie’s Make Science @etsy shop.
Dr. Jamie Molaro is a Research Scientist with the Planetary Science Institute, who is based at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
--Emily