This book documents the development of missile and spacecraft guidance computers from the earliest efforts to the current Space Station and satellite onboard systems. This book developed from the author's presentation at the Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory in 2009 for the Workshop on Flight Software. The second and third editions were expanded with new material and references. The fourth edition updated the material to the state of the art in 2014, with discussions of...

In the last 11 years, a lot has changed in this field. That's to be expected in a technology that is driven by Moore's Law, where complexity doubles every 18 months or so. So we have a factor of 7 or so, but actually the rate of change is increasing.Where we are today is machines built with multiple cores on one chip, each core being a complete computer. The same communication schemes discussed in this book are used, with the same trade-off's, shared memory or communication channel....

Pronounced RISK-Five, RISC-V is the latest implementation of the MIPS architecture, in an open source configuration. The project kicked off in 2010 at the University of California, Berkeley.It had been announced in 2018. Multiple companies now offer RISC-V chips, and the architecture is compatible with several FPGA's. The RISC-V architecture is making inroads on the popular ARM embedded architecture.There have been numerous space missions using the MIPS architecture. One of...

There is a brief review of computer architecture, binary math, and digital logic that you can skip, if you are familiar with these topics.The evolution of the 8-bit processors is a history of the advance of semiconductor technology from the first transistors, to the breakthrough of multiple transistors on a chip, the integrated circuit. A lot of this happened when the “Silicon Valley” of northern California was mostly known for its citrus crops. The tools that made all this happen ...

This book discusses the application of Cubesat Clusters, Constellations, and Swarms in the exploration of the solar systems. This includes the Sun, the 8 primary planets and Pluto, many moons, the asteroid belt, comets, the ring systems of the four gas giants, and comets. There is a lot to explore. U.S. Spacecraft have been to all of the planets in the solar system. Although the planets (and Pluto) have been visited by spacecraft, Earth's moon has been somewhat explored, and many of the ot...

The Town of Lonaconing was located centrally in the Georges Creek Valley, between Frostburg at the north, and Westernport at the south. Both towns at the extremes had rail junctions. There were plans to extend the canal through Westernport. Lonaconing became the largest among the dozen or so towns along the Georges Creek, serving as a manufacturing center, a home for companies and miners, and a major retail center. Today Lonaconing is a town of some 1,200, still the largest among the Georg...

This book is intended as an introduction to the topics of computer virtualization and the cloud. We will see how the topics come together.The book includes extensive reference and background material. It will not teach you to be an expert in virtualization or cloud technologies. It will teach you to understand and appreciate these topics, and how they fit into the big picture of computing. The best way to learn these technologies is to use them.

This book starts with the British Army's attempt to take Fort Duquesne (currentl day Pittsburgh). Along the way is Fort Cumberland, the staging area. The expedition went horribly wrong, with the British taking massive causalitys and loosing their payroll in gold. It has never been found. Those are the facts. This is historical fiction, exploring verious threads about what could have happened. The author is a native of Cumberland, Maryland, the location of Fort Cumberland. This is a tale of...

This book discusses some of the computers I had direct hands-on experience with. It covers both hardware and software.The author's first computer experience was on a Bendix G-20 mainframe, a 32-bit machine, using the Algol language. His first assembly language was on an IBM S/360 mainframe, specifically the Model 67 variant, with virtual memory. He went on to program the Univac 1108 series mainframe (a 1's complement machine), the DEC PDP-8, 9, 10, and 11, the Bendix G-15, the Athe...

This book discusses the subject of lava tubes on Earth, the Moon and Mars, and their potential applications for habitats and planetary settlements. To implement this, we need robotic explorers that can scout the lava tubes. This book will discuss an approach for that, using Cube-Xs, which are standardized architectures, based on the Cubesat model. Lava tubes are primary caves, not formed from the erosion of softer rock. We will discuss autonomous exploration of the Lava tubes by multiple u...

Rich in very diverse railroad history CSX Transportation (CSXT) is the largest eastern railroad and also one of the safest in the country. CSXT is the end result of over 150 years of railroad evolution in the United States. The largest part of CSXT consists of elements of the Chessie System and the Seaboard Coast Lines. Dozens of “fallen flag” lines such as the Baltimore & Ohio, Chesapeake & Ohio, Western Maryland, Atlantic Coast Line, Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac, Family Line,s a...

This is a book on energy storage. Most electrical energy is AC, and is used when generated. Direct current is stored in battery, but there is no such things as an AC battery. There are other ways to store the energy. Solar cells only produce electricity during the day, and we might need the energy at night. Hydro power system generate power when there is a sufficient amount of water flow. Nuclear plants generate power as needed. Power from geothermal wells is generally available 24x7.