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The computer that got humans to the moon

paul78

I was just listening on news that Neil Armstrong - the first person on the moon passed away today. It made me think about how amazing that time must have been.

And as an IT professional, I couldn't help but marvel about accomplishment with the limited computing power that was available in 1969.

The computer used for navigation on the Apollo capsule had a clock-rate of 2.048Mhz with 4Kb of RAM. By comparison, the Droid 4 where I am typing this post has a 1.2GHz dual-core CPU and comes with 1GB of RAM.

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Comments

FloOz

It is truly amazing to think about.
Just wait, 30 years from now that droid will be an antique just like the computer used by the apollo. lol

synseq

Yep the rate technology has been improving is quite remarkable. Neil Armstrong helped pave the way for future space exploration. Now a few decades later thanks to virgin galatic @ $200,000 a ticket you can fly into space for a couple of hours flight into space. To be specific it's a sub-orbital flight but none the less if I had 200k to waste that's something I would do for sure.

Now that private corporations are building spacecraft more and more people will be taking those flights and as the technology improves the prices for these flights will start to come down.

DevilWAH

It was amazing what they achieved with the computers they had. Things like non network between the commander modules and lander, meaning some data had to be read of the screen in one module and transferred by hand to the other terminals.

Shows what people can do with limited technology and how they can push it to the limits, adapting to achieve what would seem to be the impossible. Space exploration really has push the boundaries of computing. Just think of the latest curiosity landing on mars, A completed automated landing sequence that would have pushed a team of people to carry out manually

I still think the things they are doing today are no less impressive, despite the increase of computing powers, but utmost respect to the indivuals like Armstrong and the team at NASA who paved the way, the people who showed the world what could be achieved and open the doors for those that followed.

Thoughts are with Neil's Family and friends today, and hope he rest in peace. May be NASA will see fit to give him one more trip to the moon, or may be a little but further in to space. Wouldn't it be lovely if the first maned mission to Mars had him on board.

Iristheangel

Coincidentally, about 20 minutes before Mr. Armstrong's death hit the news, I was sitting in my hair salon in Pasadena when I looked to my right and saw NASA Mohawk guy getting his hair done. Had an awesome conversation with him about going to MIT and the Mars rover. Right as he walked out of the salon, I received the CNN update on my phone. It was sad. I snapped this picture of him

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dead_p00l

In related news... Can Android Revolutionize Spacecraft Design?

synseq

I wonder if he will get a space burial...

tprice5

Iristheangel wrote: »

Coincidentally, about 20 minutes before Mr. Armstrong's death hit the news, I was sitting in my hair salon in Pasadena when I looked to my right and saw NASA Mohawk guy getting his hair done. Had an awesome conversation with him about going to MIT and the Mars rover. Right as he walked out of the salon, I received the CNN update on my phone. It was sad. I snapped this picture of him

Haha. I suppose he has become a celebrity of sorts.

efripp

I've actually seen the flight computer that got him there. It's on display at the American Computer Museum in Bozeman, MT.