The Mad Penguin

A number of years ago I read a contractor’s report about Computers In Spaceflight.  It was fascinating to me to understand just how much went into this one facet of space programs, and just how little computing power it took.  Any college student familiar with basic electronics can understand the fundamentals of these early computers, but the true magic was what the programmers did to squeeze so much out of such a “small” package.  Now it’s easier for us to have one of our very own thanks to one man’s hard work.

Here’s one of my early projects done while the Canadian Women’s Hockey Team were winning the gold medal in 2002 with the use of my 7×12 minilathe from Grizzly.

These are nesting pin pushers for a couple types of electrical connectors I was using commonly at the time. They combine together into a nondescript brass rod to carry in a pocket.

This was written way back in early 2002. I have a whole new stash of goodies to apply to a mill/drill when I have a little bit of coin and time to throw at it, but as you can see, it’s not too hard to bang out a very small machine to play with.