Informatics General: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 14:30, 14 December 2021

Revision as of 20:55, 22 December 2021

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During the 1960s and 1970s Informatics played a key role in the development of online information services. One of these was RADCOL at [[Rome Air Development Center]] (site of some of Informatics's earliest contracts); this was short for RADC Automatic Document Classification On-Line, which ran from the late 1960s into the mid-1970s.<ref>Bourne and Hahn, ''A History of Online Information Services'', p. 333.</ref>

Informatics had several contracts with [[NASA]]. The earliest, in 1966 (and possibly earlier) was in support of NASA efforts at [[Jet Propulsion Laboratory]] and the [[Ames Research Center]]. In supportconjunction ofwith the contract Informatics opened a branch office in [[Glendale, California|Glendale, CA]]. Work done there included software developed to supportfor the [[Surveyor program|Surveyor]], [[Mariner program|Mariner]] and [[Apollo program|Apollo]] programs with applications as diverse as satellite tracking, redesigning the [[Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex|Goldstone]] antenna<ref>{{cite web |last1=Firnett, P., Gerritsen, R., Jarvie, P. & Ludwig, A. |title=Computer program aids dual reflector antenna system design |url=https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19680000139}}</ref> and a database application for maintaining information about [[Monkeys and apes in space|primates]] in use at various NASA labs. The program for redesign of the Goldstone antenna used what came to be called a [[hill climbing]] algorithm and was given special recognition by NASA in the form of a small monetary prize for its developers.

Later, Informatics had a long-running contract with [[NASA]] from 1968 to 1980.<ref name="bh-163">Bourne and Hahn, ''A History of Online Information Services'', p. 163.</ref>