On the surface of the moon stands a mountain as wide as the state of Delaware and taller than Denali, the tallest mountain in North America. In February of 2023–a month honoring the struggles and triumphs of Black Americans–this mountain, carved by billions of years of lunar impacts, was named Mons Mouton. It earned its name from Melba Roy Mouton, a Black woman who had a vast impact on the early history and development of space science.

Born in 1929 in Fairfax, Virginia, Melba Mouton earned her master’s degree in Mathematics at Howard University in 1950. Having made her start by working for the Army Map Service and the Census Bureau, Mouton went on to join NASA in 1959, only one year after the space agency was established. As the head mathematician of a group of mathematicians known as human computers (a role made famous by the 2016 book and film Hidden Figures), Mouton assisted in the launch and tracking of the Echo 1 and Echo 2 satellites in the early 1960s. With complex mathematical considerations such as the gravitational pull of Earth, other planets, and the Moon, this would have been a herculean task, even for an electronic computer.

In 1961, Melba Mouton became the head programmer for the NASA branch responsible for coding the early computer programs, which would later permit NASA to track orbiting spacecraft. After 14 years at NASA, she eventually retired in 1973, but not before becoming the assistant chief of research programs for the Trajectory and Geodynamics Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Mouton’s stellar contributions peaked with the 1969 landing of Apollo 11 on the Moon. For this, and other accomplishments, Mouton was honored with an Apollo Achievement Award.

Melba Mouton died in 1990, but her life’s work has made a lasting impact on space exploration, satellite technology (necessary for the phones and computers we use daily), and on the toponymy of the moon. Mons Mouton is even being considered as a landing region for Artemis 3, the first crewed lunar landing mission since 1972. Her legacy and work continue to be inspirational well after her passing.

‍

Alexandra Norman | Project Assistant

‍

Sources :

Images: creative commons license via NASA Flickr and ESE Events

NPS | Silicon Republic | Space | NASA | NASA

‍

Features:
— Expert analysis provides detailed understanding of the beneficiaries you serve, your peers in the non-profit sector, your generous donors, and more.
— Eagerness to partner with causes of all scopes and sizes, from international charities to individual teams.
— Services offered pro bono or at cost for qualifying entrants, furthering the social impact of your cause.

Projects:
— Partnering with scholars across the academic landscape, we’re efforting to humanize the transgender population by understanding how they score on normal variables of personality and gender-stereotyped behavior. This large-scale quantitative project focuses on and engages with the transgender community as people, rather than as a clinical, pathologized population. Uniting academics from Loyola Marymount University, Northeastern University, and University of Rhode Island, this work aims to add to the incomplete body of scholarship on transgender people.
— Working alongside Lindz Amer and Queer Kid Stuff, we’ve conducted a multi-part brand awareness study to establish awareness of the brand and Amer’s new book Rainbow Parenting. In over twenty in-depth interviews and a rigorous quantitative survey phase, we’ve uncovered valuable insights into opportunities for customer engagement and opportunities to bolster customer financial support.
— Supporting HoMie, an Australian-based charity tackling youth homelessness, by testing innovative software from Research Goat. By conducting in-depth interviews via a variety of methods, we’ll unearth crucial insights about the customer experience at HoMie, and follow up with a large-scale quantitative survey to understand the charity’s reach.
— Assisting Hands on Tokyo as they endeavor to address disability rights and environmental issues in Japan. In response to one of Hands on Tokyo’s inspiring live events, we delivered a video reel and additional content, both featuring enhanced accessibility for Japanese and English speakers.