Take a comprehensive look at the Apollo program as a large-scale engineering project. Explore the Moon Mission’s motivations and Cold War context, the development and operation of spacecraft technology, and the project management that made it possible. Discover what was learned about lunar geology and the program’s lasting impact on human spaceflight.
Take a comprehensive look at the Apollo program as a large-scale engineering project. Explore the Moon Mission’s motivations and Cold War context, the development and operation of spacecraft technology, and the project management that made it possible. Discover what was learned about lunar geology and the program’s lasting impact on human spaceflight.
The Apollo program, which for the first time allowed humans to physically explore the surface of another planetary body, was among the most important engineering projects of the twentieth century. This online course from MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics approaches Apollo as a large-scale engineering system, with lessons for engineers, managers, and anyone seeking to accomplish big things.
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David A. Mindell, PhD, an engineer and historian, has spent more than three decades researching the myriad relationships between people and machines and innovating to improve them. He served as an MIT department head for five years, has led or contributed to more than 25 oceanographic expeditions, and is an inventor on 34 patents for autonomous aircraft, precision navigation, and human-robotic collaboration. He is the author of seven books, including Digital Apollo: Human and Machine in Spaceflight (2008), The New Lunar Society: An Enlightenment Guide to the Next Industrial Revolution (2025), Our Robots, Ourselves: Robotics and the Myths of Autonomy (2015), Between Human and Machine: Feedback, Control, and Computing Before Cybernetics(2000), and The Work of the Future: Building Better Jobs in an age of Intelligent Machines (2022, with E. Reynolds and D. Autor). David is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a Senior Member of the IEEE. He is Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Humatics Corporation and partner of Unless, which is revitalizing US industry.
Areas of Expertise: robotics, autonomy, precision navigation, history of science and technology, reindustrialization.
Major works: https://web.mit.edu/digitalapollo/ https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262049528/the-new-lunar-society/
Dr. Jeffrey Hoffman is a professor in MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He received a BA in Astronomy (summa cum laude) from Amherst College (1966); a PhD in Astrophysics from Harvard University (1971); and an MSc in Materials Science from Rice University (1988). As a NASA astronaut (1978-1997) he made five space flights, becoming the first astronaut to log 1000 hours of flight time aboard the Space Shuttle. Dr. Hoffman was Payload Commander of STS-46, the first flight of the US-Italian Tethered Satellite System. He has performed four spacewalks, including the first unplanned, contingency spacewalk in NASA’s history (STS-51D; April 1985) and the initial repair/rescue mission for the Hubble Space Telescope (STS-61; December 1993). As the Astronaut Office representative for Extravehicular Activity, he helped develop and carry out tests of advanced high-pressure space suit designs and of new tools and procedures needed for the assembly of the International Space Station. Following his astronaut career, Dr. Hoffman spent four years as NASA’s European Representative, working at the US Embassy in Paris. In August 2001, Dr. Hoffman joined the MIT faculty, where he teaches courses on space operations and space systems design. His primary research interests are in improving the technology of space suits and designing innovative space systems for human and robotic space exploration. Dr. Hoffman is director of the Massachusetts Space Grant Consortium, responsible for space-related educational activities. He is Deputy Principal Investigator of an experiment on NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, which will for the first time produce oxygen from extraterrestrial material, a critical step in the future of human space exploration. In 2007, Dr. Hoffman was elected to the US Astronaut Hall of Fame.[JM1]
[JM1]From EdX; slight differences from most recent About Page form