An incredible convergence of technology and human ingenuity was achieved as Commander Neil Armstrong and Colonel Buzz Aldrin stepped cautiously down the ladder of the lunar module Eagle and onto the moon’s surface. “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” came Armstrong’s crackled transmission from the moon's surface.
That sentence would resonate with millions on Earth for years to come. It was July 21, 1969, when I was 13 years old, watching a fuzzy black and white television transmission with fascination and anticipation; the space program held me captive. As an avid science fiction reader, I know this was not fiction - but mankind’s greatest achievement.
That memory was rekindled over four decades later while clattering along the rails in a passenger train from Kansas City to Galesburg, Illinois, recently, while listening to Buzz Aldrin’s audiobook version, Magnificent Desolation, retelling the story in detail. I was transported back in time.
The book begins with an account of the Apollo 11 mission details from launch to splashdown. Buzz shares the specifics of the potential dangers that could have terminated the mission or the astronauts, which adds a compelling aspect to the book. It is a real page-turner.
“Eagle, you are go for powered decent” was the transmission from mission control in Houston. At 33,000 feet above the moon, the guidance computer that supplied the navigation data for landing—and subsequently for takeoff from the moon malfunctioned. “Program alarm,” said Armstrong. “12:02!” It was an alarm they had not experienced during training simulations of the mission. Was it a hardware or a software problem? There was no time to run an analysis. “Houston, can you give us a readout on the 12:02?” was Neil's urgent request. Within three seconds the order came from mission control, “you’re go for landing.” Mission Control considered the malfunction as an acceptable risk. “What exactly did that alarm mean?” thought Buzz.
Colonel Aldrin described the two computers used in the Apollo 11 spacecraft. The command module piloted by Michael Collins and the lunar module pilot Neil Armstrong computer contained 74 kilobytes of memory and a 2.048-megahertz processor, [which would be considered minuscule today]. The 12:02 alarm, as it turns out, resulted from a data overload. As a safety precaution, Aldrin had left the rendezvous radar on while making the final descent. The navigation computer programmed for landing was therefore overloaded and would set them down dangerously in a very large crater . . .
While gazing out the window of the train that morning, watching the cornfields pass by, I realized that man’s achievements in computer technology have far exceeded’ NASA’s wildest dreams from 1969. As a point of contrast, the device I used to listen to the audiobook contained 32 gigabytes of memory storage and a 1 GHz Cortex-A8 processor. That’s 33,554,432 times more memory storage, and a processor is 1,000 times faster than Apollo 11 had in its computers.
Looking with awe at my phone’s high-resolution retina display, I held the result of 40 years of technology’s advancement: a digital music player, an on-demand color movie viewer, my portable university, an instant text messaging device, a digital library of books, my e-mail correspondence tool, a portable internet radio, and a complete GPS navigation system. In summary, if you own a smartphone, you have a complete entertainment, learning, and communication center in your hand.
Despite these advances, man has not set foot on the moon or another planet since December 11, 1972. Developments in technology now originate from the private sectors of business.
Who would have ever dreamed such a thing would have been possible that July 20th, 1969, as the black and white TV flashed history before my eyes!
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