A LETTER FROM DUCHESS My grandmother Miriam Daniel Mann was born in Covington Georgia on July 25 1907 In 1943 she heard that NACA was looking to hire women to do calculations by hand This was the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics NACA later became NASA Many women known as human computers helped in the early US space program My mother’s early memories are of her mother talking about doing math problems all day Back then a lot of the math was done with a 2 pencil and the aid of a slide rule I was born two years after my grandmother passed in 1969 That was the year that the United States landed on the moon I was inspired by interviews with my mother from 2011 which is why I wrote this book Our story is a story for everyone Join me in this journey to learn about the Hidden Heroes of NASA Join me in a journey that tells the story of the promise of freedom
Miriam Daniel Mann worked as a human computer at NASA for more than 20 years
CHAPTER ONE
NASA’S SECRET NASA’S SECRET WEAPON In the fall of 1961 astronaut John the fall of 1961 astronaut John mission to orbit Earth One of mission to orbit Earth One of Glenn was preparing for his Glenn was preparing for his his preflight tasks was verifying where he would reenter Earth’s atmosphere and land This process required complicated mathematics Glenn needed a mathematician with special skills At the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA the people who did this math were called human computers The work of human computers helped make The work of human computers helped make NASA astronaut John Glenn’s mission to orbit NASA astronaut John Glenn’s mission to orbit Earth successful Earth successful
