Inventing Accuracy
by Donald MacKenzie · first published 1990
15mentions
9recommended by
10HN commenters
2016–2024first – last mentioned
90% recommend10% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Historical sociology of how ICBM and SLBM guidance became accurate, covering inertial navigation technology and the strategic needs behind it. Recommended for anyone interested in missile guidance history.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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The book to read is Inventing Accuracy by Donald MacKenzie
on “The most precise and complex mechanical inertial measurement unit ever built” ↗…to find the dest airport runway without a radio beacon (though probably not enough to automatically land on it). For anyone interested in the technical history of inertial nav, I'd highly recommend "Inventing Accuracy" by Don MacKenzie.
on “Quick explanation of how a Kalman filter works” ↗Try the wonderful Inventing Accuracy by Donald MacKenzie for more info. https://www.amazon.com/Inventing-Accuracy-Historical-Sociolo...
on “Advanced Inertial Reference Sphere (1997)” ↗The book to read is “Inventing Accuracy” by Donald Mackenzie
on “Minuteman Weapon System History and Description (2001) [pdf]” ↗…And when landing on the Moon, Apollo had to deal with irregularities in the Moon's gravity due to mass concentrations, called mascons. (If you're interested in missile guidance, take a look at the book Inventing Accuracy. Among other things, it discusses some of the efforts to map the Earth's gravity field to increase missile accuracy for Trident and Minuteman missiles. I knew a physicist who worked on this.)
on “Gravity is not a force – free-fall parabolas are straight lines in spacetime” ↗A good book discussing the drivers (and some of the technology involved) of increasing ICBM/SLBM accuracy is "Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance". https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/inventing-accuracy
on “A Stark Nuclear Warning” ↗"Inventing Accuracy" is a fascinating history of ICBM inertial guidance. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/inventing-accuracy
on “Inside a Titan missile guidance computer” ↗…an accuracy of better than +/- 2 seconds of arc, i.e. 1 part in 648000. That suggests you'd need to use pi to at least 6 decimal places (probably more) for surveying and azimuth calibration. The book "Inventing Accuracy" is about missile guidance (which has mostly the same issues) and discusses the various sources of error in detail and the various contributions to the "error budget".
on “How Many Decimals of Pi Do We Really Need? (2016)” ↗…computations. You pick your star such that it’s by far the brightest one in its neighborhood. So the image processing is just finding the brightest pixel. From what I’ve read (mostly the excellent book “Inventing Accuracy” the main challenge is very precisely aligning the telescope with the “stable member” in the gyroscope.
on “SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System (a.k.a. R2-D2) worked by tracking the stars” ↗> there was a lot of pushback inside the us military on investing in increasing the accuracy of naval ICBMs. The book "Inventing Accuracy" covers this in detail. Fascinating historical perspective. https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262631471/inventing-accuracy/
on “SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System (a.k.a. R2-D2) worked by tracking the stars” ↗…fleet still has a role to play. Other powers still have or are expanding theirs(2). Arms control talks need to get back on track. But until then, a balance needs to be kept. As an aside, I read the book "Inventing Accuracy" a while back; a really interesting look at the technology that goes into missile guidance and how it drove policy and strategy. Great read(3) 1: https://warontherocks.com/2023/11/two-myths-about-counterfor... 2:…
on “The $1.5T Nuclear Weapons Program You've Never Heard Of” ↗Let me add "Inventing Accuracy" to your list of recommended reading. It's fascinating, and it's a powerful microscope to reveal the relationship between strategic need and technological development https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262631471/inventing-accuracy/
on “United States discloses nuclear warhead numbers; restores nuclear transparency” ↗…nukes than war planning 40 - 50 years ago called for. Partly that is due to accuracy having increased rapidly since gen 1 ICBM. There is a great book about missile guidance and accuracy, it is called "Inventing Accuracy". If you can't find a local copy or can't afford it, the Internet Archive has a PDF you can check out and read. Really insightful as to the "why" we don't require 30,000 nukes (1965) -- we only require…
on “United States discloses nuclear warhead numbers; restores nuclear transparency” ↗Any opinion on the book 'Inventing Accuracy'? It covers the Minuteman guidance system for a few chapters.
on “The guidance system and computer of the Minuteman III nuclear missile” ↗I agree with your observations about "Inventing Accuracy". Personally I found the sociology focus a bit unexpected, and maybe a little too strong in some chapters, but still a worthwhile point of view. I will definitely be taking a look at "Minuteman: A Technical…
on “The guidance system and computer of the Minuteman III nuclear missile” ↗