R.I.P. Margaret Hamilton, whose code saved the Apollo 11 Moon landing
摘要
软件工程概念提出者玛格丽特·汉密尔顿去世，享年90岁。她曾领导NASA阿波罗计划机载飞行软件开发，其代码在阿波罗11号登月过程中发挥关键作用。她于2016年获总统自由勋章，次年以乐高“NASA女性”系列人仔形象被纪念。MIT航空航天系临时负责人德韦克称，她不仅是先驱，更在软件工程尚处萌芽时领导团队开发出人类最复杂系统之一，是阿波罗计划成功的重要贡献者。
Margaret Hamilton, who coined the term "software engineering" and led the development of on-board flight software for NASA's Apollo program in the 1960s, died last week at the age of 90. A recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, Hamilton was also immortalized as a LEGO minifig the following year—part of the "Women of NASA" set that also included astronauts Mae Jemison and Sally Ride.
“To say Margaret Hamilton was a pioneer—to say she was ahead of her time—would be a dramatic understatement. She was a software engineer at a time when that field was in its infancy, and she not only developed advanced code herself but also led a team in using that nascent technology to develop one of the most complex systems humanity had ever achieved,” said Olivier de Weck, interim head of the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. “The Apollo program still stands as one of our greatest testaments to the power of collaboration, ingenuity, and engineering, and Hamilton was a fundamental contributor to that program’s success.”
Born in 1936 in Paoli, Indiana, Hamilton graduated from Earlham College in 1958 with a degree in mathematics and a minor in philosophy—the latter a nod to her father (a poet) and grandfather (a headmaster). She married her first husband, James Cox Hamilton, that same year. The plan was for her to work until he finished his law degree, after which he would support her through graduate school to earn a PhD in mathematics.
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