AGC DSKY auction / was Re: Control Console, but not PDP-10
On 2019-Apr-11, at 10:04 PM, Paul Birkel via cctalk wrote: > > Now consider a DSKY. Currently at $27,500.00. Auction estimate: $60,000+ > Great provenance! “The DSKY that saved Apollo 14.” > > https://www.rrauction.com/bidtracker_detail.cfm?IN=5222 I looked up this auction too, after Marc mentioned it in his latest AGC restoration video. But while looking up the current auction, an earlier auction showed up. The same auction house sold a DSKY in 2011 for 93K$. https://www.rrauction.com/past_auction_item.cfm?ID=3242600 (That 93K$ includes the buyer's premium, so the hammer price was presumably 74K$, for comparing to the current auction.) My sense is awareness of the AGC has gone up in the intervening years, so this sale will be interesting. I guess one could debate which one has a more 'valuable' provenance. One can only speculate what an entire AGC would go for.
Re: Control Console, but not PDP-10
On Fri, Apr 12, 2019 at 11:01 AM dwight via cctalk wrote: > It is funny that the fellow that is selling the DSKY may not have the > legal right to sell it. It may technically belong to the trash company that > collected the rest of the stuff. > I'm a trash scrounger myself but there are differences with stuff no one > cares about and things of value. > It's likely more complicated than that given the amount of time that has passed. He may have had permission to retain it when the rest was dismantled, and title passes to the trash company once they remove the trash. Until then it's in a grey zone of semi-abandoned property with statutes of limitations for who may try to claw it back should some third party make off with it. This many years later, possession is more than 9/10th the law :) Warner > Dwight > > > From: cctalk on behalf of Guy Sotomayor > Jr via cctalk > Sent: Friday, April 12, 2019 9:45 AM > To: Ethan Dicks; General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts > Cc: Paul Birkel > Subject: Re: Control Console, but not PDP-10 > > You should talk to Carl as he’s created (or far along in the process) of a > DSKY to interface to > an actual AGC that’s being restored (there are a number of videos on-line > of the restoration > effort…mostly done by converting a hotel room into a lab). > > TTFN - Guy > > > On Apr 11, 2019, at 10:59 PM, Ethan Dicks via cctalk < > cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > > > > On Fri, Apr 12, 2019 at 1:23 AM Paul Birkel via cctalk > > wrote: > >> Now consider a DSKY. Currently at $27,500.00. Auction estimate: > $60,000+ > > > > I'd love to have a DSKY to fiddle around on, just for kicks, but my > > budget for a replica is a tiny fraction of that... > > > > -ethan > >
Re: Control Console, but not PDP-10
It is funny that the fellow that is selling the DSKY may not have the legal right to sell it. It may technically belong to the trash company that collected the rest of the stuff. I'm a trash scrounger myself but there are differences with stuff no one cares about and things of value. Dwight From: cctalk on behalf of Guy Sotomayor Jr via cctalk Sent: Friday, April 12, 2019 9:45 AM To: Ethan Dicks; General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Cc: Paul Birkel Subject: Re: Control Console, but not PDP-10 You should talk to Carl as he’s created (or far along in the process) of a DSKY to interface to an actual AGC that’s being restored (there are a number of videos on-line of the restoration effort…mostly done by converting a hotel room into a lab). TTFN - Guy > On Apr 11, 2019, at 10:59 PM, Ethan Dicks via cctalk > wrote: > > On Fri, Apr 12, 2019 at 1:23 AM Paul Birkel via cctalk > wrote: >> Now consider a DSKY. Currently at $27,500.00. Auction estimate: $60,000+ > > I'd love to have a DSKY to fiddle around on, just for kicks, but my > budget for a replica is a tiny fraction of that... > > -ethan
Re: Control Console, but not PDP-10
You should talk to Carl as he’s created (or far along in the process) of a DSKY to interface to an actual AGC that’s being restored (there are a number of videos on-line of the restoration effort…mostly done by converting a hotel room into a lab). TTFN - Guy > On Apr 11, 2019, at 10:59 PM, Ethan Dicks via cctalk > wrote: > > On Fri, Apr 12, 2019 at 1:23 AM Paul Birkel via cctalk > wrote: >> Now consider a DSKY. Currently at $27,500.00. Auction estimate: $60,000+ > > I'd love to have a DSKY to fiddle around on, just for kicks, but my > budget for a replica is a tiny fraction of that... > > -ethan
Re: Control Console, but not PDP-10
And don't forget about the 25% buyer's premium! Wow From: cctalk on behalf of Ethan Dicks via cctalk Sent: Friday, April 12, 2019 1:59 AM To: Paul Birkel; General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Control Console, but not PDP-10 On Fri, Apr 12, 2019 at 1:23 AM Paul Birkel via cctalk wrote: > Now consider a DSKY. Currently at $27,500.00. Auction estimate: $60,000+ I'd love to have a DSKY to fiddle around on, just for kicks, but my budget for a replica is a tiny fraction of that... -ethan
Re: Control Console, but not PDP-10
On Fri, Apr 12, 2019 at 1:23 AM Paul Birkel via cctalk wrote: > Now consider a DSKY. Currently at $27,500.00. Auction estimate: $60,000+ I'd love to have a DSKY to fiddle around on, just for kicks, but my budget for a replica is a tiny fraction of that... -ethan
Control Console, but not PDP-10
The PDP-10 Control Console sold for $3,650.00. Amazing! Now consider a DSKY. Currently at $27,500.00. Auction estimate: $60,000+ Great provenance! “The DSKY that saved Apollo 14.” https://www.rrauction.com/bidtracker_detail.cfm?IN=5222 -
Control Console, but not PDP-10
The PDP-10 Control Console sold for $3,650.00. Amazing! Now consider a DSKY. Currently at $27,500.00. Auction estimate: $60,000+ Great provenance! “The DSKY that saved Apollo 14.” https://www.rrauction.com/bidtracker_detail.cfm?IN=5222 “Apollo 14 LM Simulator Computer Display and Keyboard (DSKY) from MIT Instrumentation Laboratory” Historically significant Apollo Guidance Computer Display and Keyboard (DSKY) unit from the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, used by Don Eyles and Sam Drake to verify the software patch needed to avoid an abort during the Apollo 14 lunar landing sequence. The data entry and display device measures 8″ x 8″ x 6.5″, and has 19 keys and an electroluminescent digital display. The back of the unit retains its metal NASA parts tag which reads, “Apollo G & N System, AGC DSKY Assy, Part No. 2003985-041, Serial No. RAY 26, NAS 9-497, Designed by M.I.T. Instrumentation Lab, Mfg. by Raytheon Co., " with yellow inspection stamps above. In fine condition. Accompanied by a detailed letter of provenance from the present owner, who was employed at the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory to design, build, and maintain the CM and LM cockpit simulators. He retained the DSKY in 1978 when the LM cockpit simulator was dismantled and discarded. The DSKY was the astronaut's interface to the Apollo Guidance Computer developed by MIT, and was critical to every aspect of the mission. Each program had a two-digit code and commands were entered as two-digit numbers in a verb-noun sequence. The device permitted the astronauts to collect and provide flight information necessary for the precise landings on the moon. It was the DSKY that provided the astronauts with critical burn times for engine firings, course corrections, trajectories, and other key calculations vital in getting a crew to and from the moon. The DSKY also reported the program alarm moments before the LM touched down on the lunar surface to land. During Apollo 14, a loose ball of solder floating inside the abort switch of the LM Antares caused an intermittent short circuit, threatening to accidentally activate the switch and rocket the module back into orbit during its landing sequence. In order to prevent that scenario, MIT computer programmer Don Eyles, a developer of the AGC's source code, was asked to hack his own software to find a workaround. This represented the most dramatic moment for MIT's programmers throughout the entire Apollo program, as they had just three to four hours to work out a fix, test it, and relay it to the astronauts in time for Powered Descent Initiation (PDI). Eyles accomplished his task in just two hours, developing a 26-command sequence to be entered into the DSKY that reprogrammed the AGC to ignore the abort button. The codes were relayed to Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell with ten minutes to spare, and the LM Antares successfully touched down on the lunar surface at 09:18:11 UTC on February 5, 1971. As the MIT DSKY used to verify the code that saved the Apollo 14 mission, this is an exceptionally important piece of space history. -
