Apollo 11: 57 years ago we reached the Moon with a computer thousands of times less powerful than your cell phone

“One small step for man, one giant leap for humanity.” With this phrase said on July 20, 1969, American astronaut Neil Armstrong made history as the first human being to set foot on the surface of the Moon, an epic journey on the part of the mission. Apollo 11 that still has not been equaled and that feels even more surprising 57 years after what happened due to the technical challenges that NASA scientists had to overcome.

Meanwhile, modern phones like the iPhone 15 Pro have extraordinary capabilities of up to 3.78 GHz, and 8GB RAM – note the G that indicates an increase of the order of magnitude -, both thousands and even millions of the device that allowed astronauts to step on the Moon. However, no one is calling on Apple or Samsung to collaborate with NASA on the next lunar mission.

The reason is that despite the AGC’s apparent lack of power, it was designed with a specific purpose that it fulfilled excellently.

The first was to calculate the necessary course to reach the Mooncalibrating the astronomical measurements that the astronauts fed it during the flight to maintain or correct its position.

The second mission was equally important, which It consisted of communicating with about 150 devices on the shipsuch as thrusters, interfaces and more. In that it was incredibly effective, in successfully executing the mission despite some problems along the way and in this aspect, if the word “power” is taken as the ability or power to do something, a modern telephone is not more powerful than the AGC, at least in relation to moon landings.