May 1, 2025
Science

How did Apollo 11 manage to travel to the moon with 1/2 billionth of the RAM of an iPhone?

  • November 13, 2024
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Apollo 11It made its mark on history as the first spaceflight in human history, landing on the moon on July 20, 1969. Neil Armstrong made history by being

How did Apollo 11 manage to travel to the moon with 1/2 billionth of the RAM of an iPhone?

Apollo 11It made its mark on history as the first spaceflight in human history, landing on the moon on July 20, 1969.

Neil Armstrong made history by being the first man to set foot on the moon “That’s one small step for one person, one giant leap for humanity.” While Apollo 11, which led to him uttering these words, was indeed a giant leap for humanity, the capabilities of his computer were interesting. It was quite small.

Surprisingly, the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) used in the Apollo 11 mission had only 4 KB of RAM and 32 KB of ROM.

Apollo 11

This amount was so small that memory capacity of today’s smartphones It was less than one part in a million.

If we compare it with the memory capacity of the iPhone 16 Pro Max, the capacity of AGC is approximately that of the iPhone 16 Pro Max. one in 2 million It matches!

Even with such limited RAM, this computer could still safely host Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. He could land it on the moon’s surface and bring it back.

So how was it possible to go to the moon with this computer, which has only 4 KB of RAM?

Apollo 11

The secret to achieving such great success with such a limited memory actually lies in a lot of technology. simple and efficient software and had developed a hardware system.

In addition, computer prioritizing the most critical operations was programmed and when the computer was overloaded, only the most important tasks were processed, skipping unnecessary data.

Furthermore, due to the limited capacity of the AGC, the calculations require large calculations Some of it was done on Earth and sent to astronauts by radio. and this collaboration made it possible to perform the necessary tasks with little memory.

Manual guidance was also possible.

Apollo 11

The mission computer calculated the position and speed of the spacecraft and controlled it with an autopilot system, and in addition, the astronauts could take control when necessary, rather than leaving control entirely to the computer. A system where they can intervene manually was founded.

For example, to get a better view of Armstrong’s landing sites during the descent. Ability to turn off the computer and operate it manually This was one of the main reasons why the mission was successful with such a limited capacity.

In short, Apollo 11 was not alone Even though it has 4 KB of RAM He made history by successfully reaching the moon and created a turning point that inspired both humanity and the world of technology.

Source: Digitech

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