1960s NASA before PowerPoint and using ladders to do math - photos

[mklotz]

It appears that, given the semi-major axis and eccentricity of an orbit, they're trying to construct the Hamiltonian and then differentiate that to obtain the equations of motion of the orbiter.

Why they need to do this on a billboard-sized blackboard is beyond me but I'm sure it's some sort of publicity stunt. I would use the portmanteau "matheater" to describe their efforts.