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PROJECT MANAGEMENT
On the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, Cliff Saran looks back at the technology that sent Apollo 11 into space
It is difficult to appreciate the technical challenges involved in putting a man on the moon, but 1960s computer technology played a fundamental role.
By today's standards, the IT Nasa used in the Apollo manned lunar programme is basic. But while they were no more powerful than a programmable calculator, these computer systems were able to guide astronauts across 393,309km of space from the Earth to the Moon and return them safely.
The lunar programme led to the development of safety-critical systems and the practice of software engineering to program those systems. Much of the knowledge gleaned from the Apollo programme formed the basis of modern computing.
Apollo Guidance Computer
The lunar mission used a command module computer designed at MIT and built by Raytheon, which paved the way to "fly by wire" aircraft.
The Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) used a real-time operating system, which enabled astronauts to enter simple commands by typing in pairs of nouns and verbs, to control the spacecraft. It was more basic than the electronics in modern toasters that have computer controlled stop/ start/defrost buttons. It had approximately...