“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” With this phrase uttered 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 for the mission Apollo 11 which has not yet been equalled and feels even more amazing 55 years after the event because of the technical challenges NASA scientists had to overcome.
Perhaps one of the most incredible is that the Apollo navigation system, responsible for determining the ship’s trajectory, had less than one-thousandth the capacity of a modern iPhone.
This is not to say that the Apollo Navigation Computer (AGC) was not state-of-the-art when it was created in the 1960s, when it was developed by MIT researchers.
The AGC was one of the first computers to be based on integrated circuits, boasting surprising computational capabilities – for its time – with a speed of 0.043 MHz, a RAM memory of 2,048 bytes (2kB) and 20,480 bytes of ROM, all under the unusual light weight of only 31.8 kilograms and in a “small” package dimensions of 61x32x17 centimeters.
Meanwhile, modern phones like the iPhone 15 Pro have extraordinary capabilities of up to 3.78 GHz, and 8GB RAM – note the G indicating an order of magnitude increase – both thousands and even millions of the device that allowed astronauts to set foot 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 course necessary to reach the Mooncalibrating the astronomical measurements that 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. At this it was incredibly effective, successfully executing the mission despite some problems along the way, and in this regard, if the word “power” is taken as the ability or power to do something, a modern phone is no more powerful than the AGC, at least as it relates to lunar landings.
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But then why do people continue to compare mobile devices to a computer designed for the rigors of space? Perhaps it has to do with the book “The Physics of the Future” (2011), where physicist Michio Kaku notes “Today, your cell phone has more computing power than NASA had in 1969, when it put two astronauts on the Moon.”, a passage that highlights the achievements of scientists of the time to achieve great things despite technological limitations and inspires us to achieve more with our new capabilities. For our part, we have a phrase from popular wisdom that also fits the situation: “What matters is not the power of the tool, but how you use it”.