Wed 23 Jan ∞ Permalink
“Before the invention of computer flight simulators, engineers at NASA needed a way to help astronauts visualize landing on the moon. “So they built LOLA, or Lunar Orbit and Landing Approach, at Langley Space Center: a system of massive glowing murals and scale model-orbs criss-crossed with ribbons of track. In total darkness, pilots would ride in carts along the tracks, poised at relevant angles from the ersatz moons, and practice translunar approach and orbit establishment in a field of simulated stars, front-projected onto screens by a four-axis “star ball” mounted over the cabin.” (via L-O-L-A, LOLA – Universe)

“Before the invention of computer flight simulators, engineers at NASA needed a way to help astronauts visualize landing on the moon.

“So they built LOLA, or Lunar Orbit and Landing Approach, at Langley Space Center: a system of massive glowing murals and scale model-orbs criss-crossed with ribbons of track. In total darkness, pilots would ride in carts along the tracks, poised at relevant angles from the ersatz moons, and practice translunar approach and orbit establishment in a field of simulated stars, front-projected onto screens by a four-axis “star ball” mounted over the cabin.”

(via L-O-L-A, LOLA – Universe)