Quote:
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Originally Posted by mike flugennock
Stan Marsh wrote:
Not true, a big old sack of crap. That particular program had about 5
minutes of decent content, if that much...
Y'know, I'd just read about that recently, but the details escape me
right now; iirc, they weren't actual "live" digital systems, but
something somehow involving printed fresh data broadcast over a CCTV
link, and that the screens in the consoles were actually, basically, tv
sets on which the controllers could "change channels" to bring up
different data.
Still, that's really badly remembered, and I suppose it's time to step
aside and let Sy Liebergot explain this to us...
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Not sure how the message got garbled... but Stan Marsh has it close. The titles and labels were definitely on printed slides which were automatically moved over CRT screens painted with live data from the control center mainframes (the "RTCC"). The composite was viewed by another camera which was actually the "channels" we viewed on the console display CRT's in the control center. Considering how little compute power was available in those days, it was an amazing combination of ingenuity and mechanics that made that and other elements of mission control work in the late 60's.
Controllers with the capability would select the "displays" to watch which went on an available channel, and then everyone else in the building could simply tune to that "TV channel" to see the same display. This also meant that the consoles could select channels that had regular CCTV television on them - be it broadcast from a camera mounted over a display table to see a paper plot or somesuch, or one of many camera views from KSC or within the MCC.
As to the "documentary" itself... I was a bit disappointed in the outcome. As usual, it wasn't advertised to be what it turned out to be for those of us who participated. I do not agreed that it was inaccurate - but it certainly was much more on the side of sensationalism an theatrics than I expected for a History Channel or Science Channel "documentary".
Jack Garman
May 11, 2006, Houston, TX