In my last column I discussed the new space race by Amazon and SpaceX to launch tens of thousands of satellites to provide internet access from anywhere on earth. This being the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, I felt the need to step back to July 20, 1969, when Apollo 11 landed on the moon and Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot there. By now you have probably seen or read the many highly detailed stories of the mission’s other astronauts; Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, as well as the massive efforts, personal sacrifices, and successes (and failures) of the hundreds of thousands of people who worked on the Apollo project; building the Saturn launch rockets, Apollo spacecraft, and Lunar Lander. But what about computers and software to solve the ultimate mission critical challenge that led to that historic event: how to safely get astronauts to the moon and back? I thought we might take a brief look at how they were able to accomplish this milestone journey without access to internet, or the multitude of computing and communications resources we take for granted today.
The 1960s became the decade of the U.S. space race to the moon, driven by U.S. national pride and massive government funding. As a result, the computing hardware that was available at the time for NASA’s lunar mission was cutting edge, state-of-the-art technology, and leading firms such as IBM, Honeywell, Raytheon, and many others who saw this as their priority mission statement to be developed and brought their best technology and talent to the project.