Space Exploration
On Another Apollo Anniversary, a Reminder: IBM Space Technology Continues to Evolve
History’s publicists have done well by Apollo 11 and Neil Armstrong’s first moon steps in July 1969. However, fewer recall the Apollo 12 lunar mission four months later. It almost didn’t happen. On Nov. 14, 1969, in the first minute after lift-off, two lightning bolts struck Apollo 12. The spacecraft’s main power supply went dark, […]
How a NASA Flight Controller’s Quick Thinking Saved Apollo 12
Less than a minute after Apollo 12 lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 14, 1969, it was struck twice by lightning. The electrical surges knocked out the main on-board power supply and disrupted the telemetry feed that was sending data from the command module to NASA controllers on the ground. Their monitor […]
The Apollo 11 Lessons We Live by Today
In 1969, more than 4,000 IBMers worked alongside NASA to land Apollo 11 on the moon. And for each day of the many months they worked writing code, programming computers and running simulations, they never stopped thinking: What else could we do? What contingency can we plan for? What are we forgetting? In fact, it […]
IBM & NASA: Working Side-by-Side to Land on the Moon
This Saturday, July 20th, is the 50th anniversary of one of humanity’s greatest technological achievements: landing people on the Moon, and subsequently returning them safely to Earth. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy challenged Americans to reach the Moon by the end of the decade, and in 1969 an extraordinary collaboration between the public and […]
Streaming the South American Solar Eclipse with the Help of the Cloud
Just before sunset on July 2 the moon over South America will pass in front of the sun and shift its umbral shadow from the Pacific Ocean, over La Serena, Chile, across the continent to Buenos Aires, and into the Atlantic. Although locations in neighboring Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay will be able to […]
On International Space Day, Students Create Virtual Assistants with AI
To celebrate International Space Day, IBM hosted 35 students from the Brooklyn-based Pathways in Technology Early College High School program, who got an inside look, and first-hand experience, in how to leverage artificial intelligence for the advancement of space exploration. The P-TECH students learned about CIMON (short for Crew Interactive MObile CompanioN), which was developed by Airbus […]
Watson Hops On Board Human Space Flight
In June, German astronaut Alexander Gerst will embark on his second six-month mission to the International Space Station (ISS), serving as station commander in the second half of his stay. On this mission, Gerst and his team will receive some unusual support: CIMON (Crew Interactive Mobile Companion) will be on board – a medicine ball-sized […]
SETI Leans on IBM Cloud to Eavesdrop on the Cosmos
Earlier this year, the world took note when an international team of scientists discovered that three of seven Earth-size planets orbiting the nearby star TRAPPIST-1 were in the habitable zone. Solar systems with this many planets are a rare find in the galaxy. Even rarer, these planets are similar in size to Earth and could […]
Revealing the ‘Hidden Figures’ of STEM
Watch this short video on the making of the inspirational, Hidden Figures, a movie based on the acclaimed book of the same name that chronicles the early lives of three remarkable African American women who helped NASA calculate man’s first orbital flights around Earth.
One Girl’s Journey into Programming
Like a lot of high schools, mine has a wide range of extracurricular activities, from academic clubs, such as Math Honor Society, to sports teams like outdoor beach volleyball. But there’s one that’s fairly unique: an organization of driven, smart young ladies called All Girls Code. The All Girls Code club was started a couple […]