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Preface
There was once a computer that conceived the brave dreams of mankind and forged an incomparable feat, although it only had 4KB of memory, which is simply insignificant compared to modern mobile phones and computers, but it carried the hope of mankind and shined on the stars of the moon.
This is the Apollo guidance computer, one of the core of the human moon landing program, who gave birth to a miracle that provided astronauts with accurate navigation, computing and security in that exciting moment.
Apollo Guidance Computer
When we witness the futuristic spaceships and dazzling computer systems of science fiction movies, it may be hard to imagine that the real world was so different half a century ago.
The computer memory of the Apollo spacecraft is no more than 4KB, and it is unbelievable that a modern mobile phone may have taken a single photo that has exceeded its capacity!
The computer that shone on the moon was 32 kilograms, heavier than a standard package of rice, and at the time it seemed bulky and massive, like a monster ahead of its time.
When the world's first computer appeared in 1946, people were impressed by its computing power and at the same time by its huge size, weighing more than 30 tons and the size of a house, making people think that this would be what the computer of the future would look like.
However, the rapid development of science and technology has changed the face of computers, and China's first 150 machines with millions of computing power are only a few hundred kilograms, which has greatly improved the image of computers.
But you must know that the 150 was actually put into service in 1972, and the Apollo moon landing was in 1969, so you can imagine how powerful the computer on board was.
The most advanced computer in the world at the time was tasked with calculating the orbit of the lunar lander and constantly correcting the parameters based on the astronauts' observations to prevent external factors from affecting the spacecraft's route, in addition to an auxiliary computer that sent instructions to the spacecraft systems for the astronauts to operate manually.
In addition to the original calculator, the Apollo also had a 72KB of read-only memory, which is just as incredible today.
This primitive memory, known as the "core rope memory", outputs data by pulling a string on a chip, into which hundreds of programmers enter the programs needed for the Apollo flight in advance, and the astronauts simply call them up through their computers during the flight.
In today's era of technological explosion, even if we want to reproduce the feat of manned landing on the moon, it is even more difficult, these seemingly dirty technologies, but they are the crystallization of human unremitting efforts and courage.
Six moon landings
Since the historic Apollo 11 mission to the moon in 1969, the United States has conducted six manned lunar landings, and a total of 12 astronauts have become lunar explorers.
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin of Apollo 11 became the first astronauts to land on the moon, embarking on the first trip to the moon in human history.
Next, Pete Conrad and Alan Bean of Apollo 12 landed precisely on the moon, and Apollo 14's Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell brought a "lunar rickshaw" to achieve more sampling tasks.
Apollo 15's David Scott and James Erwin became the first pair of astronauts to fly a manned lunar rover, Apollo 16's John Young and Charles Duke extended the exploration to the Central Plateau, and finally, Apollo 17's Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmidt spent the longest time on the moon.
These 12 lunar explorers are all Americans, they played a unique role in the moon mission, they rely not only on courage and determination, but also on the power of science and technology, these moon missions are not only a national feat, but also the common glory of all mankind, so why did the United States not go to the moon again in the next 50 years?
No more moon landing in 50 years
Missions to the moon are a huge challenge, and one of the important factors is funding, in the case of the Apollo program, the United States invested more than $20 billion to achieve the moon landing goal, which means that each mission to the moon costs nearly $4 billion.
Even today, the United States, as one of the richest countries in the world, cannot afford such a huge expenditure, and space spending needs to be used for a wider range of development, and it is difficult to spend it on a mission to the moon.
This year, for example, the GDP of the United States reached about $22 trillion, while when it landed on the moon, the GDP of the United States was less than $700 billion.
This shows us that NASA's financial situation was more limited at the time, and looking back at the scenario, an aircraft carrier cost only $200 million, while a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier cost only $400 million.
Today, the cost of a Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier has reached $13 billion, and these comparisons give us a clearer picture of the budget constraints at the time.
When the United States successfully landed on the moon for the first time, they had already collected the lunar material they needed and brought it back to Earth for intensive study.
The subsequent lunar missions only obtained some useful materials on this basis, and other aspects of exploration became relatively meaningless after frequent and repeated lunar landings.
As you can imagine, the mission to the moon itself is very expensive and complex, requiring a lot of resources and effort, and the United States has already accomplished their initial goal in the early missions to the moon, obtaining enough lunar samples to study.
Frequent moon landings and bringing back more lunar material will face diminishing benefits, bringing relatively little value relative to the huge cost inputs.
The United States has landed on the moon many times in three consecutive years since its successful moon landing in 1969, demonstrating their outstanding achievements and status in the field of spaceflight, and this series of lunar missions has proved to the world the technological strength and courage of the United States.
Since then, no other country has successfully landed on the moon, especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when the United States slackened in the field of space, because the space program was originally set up to compete with the Soviet Union for hegemony.
Now that the Soviet Union no longer exists, the pressure of competition has gradually decreased, and the center of gravity of the United States has shifted accordingly, you can imagine how powerful Apollo 11 was at that time.
epilogue
Today, we have computer technology that is more powerful, smaller, cheaper, and more widespread than the Apollo moon landing computer, compared to the computer used by the United States when it successfully landed on the moon.
The computer chips we use in modern times far surpass the computing power of the Apollo era, are smaller, cheaper, and have become ubiquitous in almost everyone's daily life.
Such a huge breakthrough makes us look back on the past and cannot help but sigh that the United States was able to control a spacecraft and successfully land on the moon with such "primitive" computer technology.
Although now we have more powerful technology, we should pay tribute to the scientists and engineers of that era, who performed incredible feats and demonstrated human ingenuity and courage in the extreme conditions of that time.