Moon Machines: Apollo Guidance Computer NASA (Part 1 of 3)

The right tools for the job... The U.S. Moon missions would never have gotten 10 feet off the ground without the pioneering engineers and manufacturers and the amazing machines they created to turn science fiction into historymaking headlines. From nuts and bolts to rockets and life support systems, every piece of gear was custom made from scratch to perform cuttingedge scientific tasks while withstanding the violent rigors of space travel. Now heres your chance to climb aboard the capsule, put on a spacesuit and learn the real stories behind the right stuff.

We tell the story of how a group of computer scientists grappled with the challenge of navigation of a round trip to the Moon back in the days when computer code and software hadnt been invented and computing power was a fraction of what it is today.

• Category

  Science & Technology

[TankdozerCavalry]

12:46

"They would need a modern digital computer."

Your calculator watch has more processing power than the Apollo Guidance Computer. That's not "modern"...

[frank serpico]

a digital computer that works with integrated circuits is modern compared to one that is built with vacuum tubes. You should actually know that the term "modern" is relative...

[TheDanfuerth]

The issue here is very simple in 1969 no one had the knowledge and hardware and the computing power to have a manned moon mission. All hardware, all computers would have to be tested in space yet none of that happened

[frank serpico]

"In 1969 no one had the knowledge and hardware and the computing power to have a manned moon mission".

If you want i send you via mail a pdf of the apollo guidance system specs and you give a SPECIFIC explanation why this system was not capable of doing the required calculations.

Are you just talking big or can you show what you mean? Im just asking for one example

[PoSiTiVeDrIp]

you can send that pdf to me, i wouldnt mind a copy

[frank serpico]

sorry for me late reply, i simply forgot. You just have to google for pdf named "primary guidance control system" and you will find numerous documents by NASA and MIT.

Unfortunately i cant find the programmers manual for the AGC anymore...There are literally hundreds of documents and specs out there. If youre generally interessted to understand how the AGC works, you shoudl definately check out Frank O`Briens book on this matter

[6gu7]

What we went to the moon with, we do not have anymore. That's a fact. If we were to return to the moon, we would have to develop new technology to do so, or scrounge up the old technology that once existed. Either way, there is no gurantee we could do it again.

[James Cloninger]

If we had the technology then, then we have it now. Please don't be ignorant.

[6gu7]

No we do not. Sorry.....

[James Cloninger]

The AGC was capable of determining trajectories thanks to the onboard telescope/sextant used to get star fixes in order to determine the spacecraft's orientation with repect to the coordinate frame (the REFSMMAT) that it was working in.

[James Cloninger]

It's a comparison of apples and oranges. The guidance computer was carefully programmed using low-level machine language to do specific jobs. It did not require a high-language interpreter, as most programing languages do, and didn't have to support peripherals such as a video monitor, word processor, etc. The computer's job was mostly to do math. Lots of math.

[James Cloninger]

That was the purpose of the Gemini programme...to test the hardware and the computers, silly boy. And we certainly had the computer power, large rooms of mainframes to do the job. It's all in the math.

[James Cloninger]

You can probably find them here:

ibiblio(dot)org/apollo/assembl­y_language_manual.html

[James Cloninger]

We have the technology, duh. We simply don't have the will to spend the money to do it.

[patachu666]

06:30 Wheatley's in commands.

HOLD ON hold on hehe. i know what i'm doing. i know where's the airport, just .. sidewinds. oh look ! there's kitties down there ! we should take this route ! you like kitties don't you? oh okay, we go to Los Angeles.. L.A.X ! it is ... this way, right."

[marmaladekamikaze]

Although there was no fissile material onboard any of the manned project Mercury(Atlas ICBM) or Gemini(Titan ICBM) missions. It is a good point you make about how both launch vehicles guidance system's were ''rad-hard'' rated already due to their primary design requirement before these proverbial ''swords were beaten into plough-shares''.i.e Before the launch vehicle was designed to be capable of lifting fissile material, and delivering 'the bomb' to within hundreds of meters(CEP) of Red Square.