OCS Seminars
Brandon Brown: Inside Apollo: Forgotten Stories and Important Lessons
The Apollo missions were a monumental achievement for humanity. Their success rested on the efforts of some four hundred thousand people who worked tirelessly for 11 years to make the Moon landing a reality Dr. Brandon Brown discussed some of the tremendous engineering achievements, people and stories of the Apollo era.
Abstract:
The nation celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first Apollo Moon landing this summer, but most accounts do not have a technical perspective on the program’s striking success. How exactly did the engineers solve so many daunting problems from scratch, from unstable engines and extreme temperatures to the many unknowns of regions beyond Earth orbit? This talk will get inside Apollo’s chariot with a wrench and a voltmeter, revisiting some fascinating and lesser known engineering stories, informed at every step by interviews with the Apollo-era engineers.
Biography:
Brandon R. Brown is a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of San Francisco. His research includes work on superconductivity and sensory biophysics. His writing about science for general audiences includes articles and columns for New Scientist, Slate, and Scientific American, as well as the 2015 biography Planck: Driven by Vision, Broken by War.
