Computer scientist Margaret Hamilton was a problem-solver for the ages (op-ed)

Dean Robbins is a journalist and children's author.

He contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights .

The pioneering computer scientist Margaret Hamilton , who died on Sept.

30 at age 90, played a key role in putting astronauts on the moon.

She was a problem-solver extraordinaire, and it all started in early childhood.

Considering the name "daddy longlegs" unfair to female arachnids, young Margaret decided to call half of them "mommy longlegs." Wondering why the neighborhood baseball players were all boys, she determined to join the team herself.

As she grew up in the 1940s and '50s, Margaret noticed a similar problem with various professions.

Why were doctors, judges and scientists almost always men? The solution: she would study hard in school and prepare herself for any job she might care to do.

It's no surprise that a born problem-solver would gravitate to computers.

In the late 1950s, the new technology offered mind-bending possibilities, and this college math major saw a chance to put her skills to use on a cosmic scale.

Hamilton had long been a stargazer, thanks to a philosophical father who taught her to love the night sky .

In 1965, after stints in meteorology and satellite tracking, she became interested in a Massachusetts Institute of Technology project that designed in-flight computers for NASA's moon mission.

The team, of course, consisted solely of men.

But, just as with her neighborhood baseball team, Hamilton refused to accept limitations for herself or anybody else.