Landed on the moon - and took off to reunited with an orbiting spaceship - AND did it with a collection of computers that together weren’t half as powerful as an iphone.
They were using slide rules. They did not have computers on board. It was amazing. And they could have died a thousand different ways. It was truly amazing.
And that actually vastly overestimates the Apollo computers’ power. An iPhone is more powerful than a 1980s Cray supercomputer. The Apollo computers were no more powerful than a late-1970s programmable calculator.
Computers that were a tiny fraction of the computing power of an iphone or even android phone.
They didn’t have computing power of a modern day programmable calculator.🤔
Truly amazing. I don’t remember the Mercury missions, but do remember Gemini and Apollo. We were stationed in Italy when Neil and Buzz walked on the moon. We watched it on Italian TV surrounded by Italians and other USAF families. I was so proud. The memory still makes my heart swell.
I am currently reading ‘Rocket Men’, a book about the Apollo 8 mission. The first time men went to, and orbited, the moon. They describe planning the mission - go to the moon, orbit 10 times at 69 miles altitude, then return to Earth - as throwing a dart at a peach from 28 feet away and grazing the fuzz but not touching the skin. To complicate things the moon is moving at 2300 MPH, so throw the peach up in the air - THEN throw the dart. Truly amazing.
I look around now and wonder WHY anyone would want to destroy that. The pride I felt in ‘69 has turned to a deep sadness.