Today You Wonder
Technology

Some Phone Chargers Beat the Computer That Landed Apollo 11

todayyouwonder.com/apollo-computer

Sources

Research & primary sources

  1. Apollo Guidance ComputerRaytheon Company, Space and Information Systems Division (hosted by the Virtual AGC project, ibiblio.org) · 1965ibiblio.org
  2. Tales from the Lunar Module Guidance ComputerDon Eyles, AAS Guidance and Control Conference paper (hosted by klabs.org) · 2004klabs.org
  3. Landing Apollo via CambridgeMIT News (reprint of Don Eyles' 1989 Boston Globe article) · 2009news.mit.edu
  4. Apollo 11 Guidance Computer vs. USB-C ChargersForrest Heller (personal blog) · 2020forrestheller.com
  5. EZ-PD CCG4 USB Type-C Port Controller datasheetCypress Semiconductor (doc. 001-98440 Rev. *K) · 2018mm.digikey.com
  6. WhatsApp Messenger on the App StoreApple App Store (US) · 2026apps.apple.com

Further reading

  1. Computers in Spaceflight: The NASA Experience - The Apollo Guidance Computer: HardwareNASA History Office (James E. Tomayko, NASA CR-182505) · 1988nasa.gov
  2. Apollo 11 Program AlarmsNASA Apollo Lunar Surface Journal (Peter Adler) · 1998nasa.gov
  3. The "Rope Mother" Margaret HamiltonSmithsonian National Air and Space Museum (Paul Ceruzzi) · 2016airandspace.si.edu
  4. Software woven into wire: Core rope and the Apollo Guidance ComputerKen Shirriff's blog (righto.com) · 2019righto.com
  5. Core memory weavers and Navajo women made the Apollo missions possibleScience News (Joy Lisi Rankin) · 2022sciencenews.org

Images & footage

S69-39961 Liftoff of the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission
NASA (JSC)
Apollo Guidance Computer and DSKY (Agc_view.jpg)
NASA
Smartphone-mobile-hand-technology-internet-finger
Unknown author (stock photo on Commons)
USB-C cable 2017 A
Fructibus (Wikimedia Commons)
Green circuit board II
Peter Shanks
AS11-36-5391 (Apollo 11 Hasselblad, magazine 36/N)
NASA (Project Apollo Archive scan)
Titan Missile Core Memory Board
Steve Jurvetson
Figure 2-1: the principle behind core rope (Computers in Spaceflight: The NASA Experience, NASA CR-182505)
NASA History Office (James E. Tomayko, 1988)
Apollo 11 25th Anniversary "B" Roll Footage (KSC-19690716-MH-NAS01-0001-Apollo_11_Historical_Footage_and_Broll-DVC_1560) - excerpt 1237-1252.5 s
NASA (Apollo 11 archive film, 1969; compiled by Kennedy Space Center)
Apollo 11 25th Anniversary "B" Roll Footage (KSC-19690716-MH-NAS01-0001-Apollo_11_Historical_Footage_and_Broll-DVC_1560) - excerpt 1253.5-1266.5 s
NASA (Apollo 11 archive film, 1969; compiled by Kennedy Space Center)
AS11-40-5903 Astronaut Edwin Aldrin walks on lunar surface near leg of Lunar Module
NASA (photo by Neil Armstrong)