The computer that got us to the Moon - 13 Minutes to the Moon Season 1, Ep 5

The computer that got us to the Moon - 13 Minutes to the Moon Season 1, Ep 5 - BBC World Service

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3 жыл бұрын

The computer that got us to the Moon during Apollo 11.
It was the size of a briefcase, and there had never been anything like it.
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This is the story of the world’s first digital portable general purpose computer, which, through the work of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, helped give rise to the digital age.
Presented by: Kevin Fong
Starring:
Ramon Alonso
Elaine Denniston
Charlie Duke
Don Eyles
Eldon Hall
Margaret Hamilton
Dan Lickly
Theme music by Hans Zimmer for Bleeding Fingers Music.
Listen to the podcast: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p083t547
Watch Season 1 of 13 Minutes to the Moon here: kzfaq.info/sun/PLz_B0PFGIn4f0xYPhOk0wIASOYE8-1Wbz
Watch Season 2 of 13 Minutes to the Moon here: kzfaq.info/sun/PLz_B0PFGIn4daEaUX-8ZJHv40rGAINzFy
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Пікірлер: 66

@literallyshaking8019 Жыл бұрын

The AGC is quite possibly the greatest computer hardware/software ever created. When you think of the era in which it was created, the limitations, the innovations and the importance to get it perfect every time, it’s absolutely mind blowing that they pulled it off.

@GH-oi2jf 2 ай бұрын

It is pointless to choose the "greatest" anything. There have been many computers which were great achievements, for one reason or another.

@paulgracey4697 Жыл бұрын

My computer experience began with the U.S. Navy's first shipboard digital computers in 1962. While much larger than the Apollo guidance computer, it was the size of a large refrigerator. More ROM, larger word size, but still very compact for that time. Our training included making code that was as economic as practical, in machine code(no language like COBOL) Ours was done without a single integrated circuit, but it was done with far more reliable transistors than the IBM mainframes of that time. Still, we had two of those beasts, and the LM only had the one machine to rely upon. Marvelous.

@GH-oi2jf 2 ай бұрын

Was that the AN/USQ-17? That was one of Seymour Cray's first computers.

@Erik-gg2vb Жыл бұрын

There is in you tube a bunch of software/hardware geeks getting their hands on a test hardware for the LEM and exploring (opening up) the hardware and proofing the core memory, IC were still functioning using supplied original flow charts was working. Fascinating stuff, look for it.

@benjaminhanke79 5 ай бұрын

You're talking of @Curiousmarc. He and his friends did a nerdy deep dive into the AGC in serveral episodes released over the past five years. It's unbelievable detailed and always worth a re-watch.

@ardeladimwit Ай бұрын

it was the most beautiful starry morning and this came over the radio in the truck.... and so amazing to look up and think that there were men on the moon and we were listening to them on the radio. Crazy.

@ryanreedgibson Ай бұрын

I wish I could have been there. Being born into it takes away some of the wonder.

@ardeladimwit Ай бұрын

@@ryanreedgibson no-- just go look at the original footage and transcripts, photos and listen to the transmissions. It still remains awesome or more awesome in retrospect. I think the thing that is really overwhelming is the Crawler. You have to be mad to saddle yourself to a massive rocket, but the Crawler is unreal.

@davidmurphy563 3 жыл бұрын

That was amazing

@BBCWorldService 3 жыл бұрын

We're so pleased you enjoyed it David! You can watch more episodes here 👉 kzfaq.info/sun/PLz_B0PFGIn4f0xYPhOk0wIASOYE8-1Wbz

@farmeralnz 2 ай бұрын

I loved both seasons of this pod cast, it’s absolutely brilliant.

@Derpy1969 10 ай бұрын

The Apollo AGC was an incredible device made possible by the billions put into the project by the US govt. It accelerated computer technology by a decade easily. Thanks to MIT.

@davethebarber3130 Ай бұрын

How fantastic to have an audio, somewhat visual, report of sterling repute about this inspired programming team! Thank you, BBC! I went right out and bought Don Eyle’s book and will listen to the rest of the podcast series. 👍👍🌕🔭🚀👩‍🚀

@tomtalk24 Жыл бұрын

Should have been made a TV episode

@howardroark6594 Ай бұрын

What an amazing podcast! The podcast is a very accessible retelling of an odyssey of stupendous engineering accomplishments.

@ZATennisFan Ай бұрын

This is true programming where failure is not an option to quite Gene Krantz

@Pang_Yau Жыл бұрын

How they managed to fit the entire source code into 36KB of ROM memory on the AGC about half an average email I will never comprehend .

@DarronBirgenheier Жыл бұрын

NOT source code

@GH-oi2jf 11 ай бұрын

It didn’t contain any unnecessary software. The functions it performed were simple.

@Pang_Yau 11 ай бұрын

@@GH-oi2jf have you even seen the source code printout of the agc . It's like several telephone books

@amaratvak6998 5 ай бұрын

Because they never did!!! NASA cannot hide the bitter truth forever...lots n lots n lots of unanswered questions remain

@amaratvak6998 5 ай бұрын

Because they never did!!!

@carolmiller1148 8 сағат бұрын

This is ancient history

@jackkomisar458 11 ай бұрын

Core-rope memory in the Apollo Guidance Computer was what we would now call Read-Only-Memory (ROM) or non-volatile memory, in contrast to RAM, or random-access memory, in which information can change while a computer is in use. In the time of the Apollo Guidance Computer, RAM in regular commercial computers was provided by tiny magnetic rings called "cores". I have always assumed that the difference between core memory and core-rope memory was the presence of wires in the latter, and that the cores were the same. But I have never found a written description or a video that actually says this.

@GH-oi2jf 2 ай бұрын

All core memory has wires running through the cores.

@BBCWorldService 3 жыл бұрын

Watch season 1 of the 13 minutes to the Moon 👉 kzfaq.info/sun/PLz_B0PFGIn4f0xYPhOk0wIASOYE8-1Wbz

@ivanfaught9997 Ай бұрын

Why show the circles all the time

@howardroark6594 Ай бұрын

Thank you for this amazing podcast production!

@rsc9520 2 ай бұрын

It's amazing !!!

@Diresage 16 күн бұрын

Someone probably has Doom running on it

@Thisandthat8908 Ай бұрын

poor old IBM 360 Mainframes get so little attention, doing most of the non-human computer work.

@Punk1984Rock 2 ай бұрын

Shame they had to remove all of the negative comments.

@leenevin8451 Жыл бұрын

I watched a video that said it’s a conspiracy. I’m convinced because I dumb

@David-lb4te 4 ай бұрын

Yes you must be.

@romanroad483 Ай бұрын

If you know you're dumb then you are not.

@shankarbalakrishnan2360 2 ай бұрын

The 4th humans computers❤❤🎉🎉

@PCBoardRepair Жыл бұрын

great video of circles on screen

@anacerdalopez Жыл бұрын

In black screen are bether

@elvenkind6072 Жыл бұрын

It's a podcast, not a video..

@kimbalcalkins6903 3 жыл бұрын

Unfortunately the fourth astronaut slept through the descent to and ascent from the moon, not his fault, he never got instructions to control the engines

@eduardof.8117 5 күн бұрын

KZfaq é video!

@meritocracy168 Ай бұрын

No matter how you described verbally. I am still not convinced why it is so difficult to get back there with much powerful computers, improvement of material science, more precision machines to make better equipment, etc. for the past 50 years.

@kadiummusic Ай бұрын

There's an easy answer. But most people don't want to acknowledge it. 🤔

@sebastiannolte1201 Ай бұрын

You don't need computers to go to the moon, but a big rocket. And you need money and the will to do it. The first human went to the ground on the Mariana trench already in 1960, the next one was 2012. So why was there nothing between 1960 and 2012?

@howardroark6594 Ай бұрын

Since the task has already been accomplished it becomes politically more difficult to justify the cost to do it all again. There is no longer an ideological/ military opponent to beat, no longer a romantic hero's promise to keep, so the urgency and focus for a tremendous effort are difficult to justify.

@laskartrece Жыл бұрын

Come on! Funny...

@romanroad483 Ай бұрын

Did the Russians have plans for a computer, electronic, mechanical, digital or analogue, to control their lunar lander?

@tamasmihaly1 23 күн бұрын

Us?

@dannymostarac1799 Жыл бұрын

First aid?

@djtomoy Ай бұрын

Can its plays minecraft??

@osogrande4999 Ай бұрын

No, only spacecraft.

@djtomoy Ай бұрын

@@osogrande4999 no bad, funnier answer would have been Lunar Lander

@robinwilliamsdouble5009 3 ай бұрын

Landing a man on the moon and safely returning them home was a great American achievement. No other country could have done it.

@osogrande4999 Ай бұрын

Trump is that you?

@IbnBahtuta Ай бұрын

The computer that got us to the Moon, who is the us? Here in Great Britain, we didn't go to the Moon, and probably never will, except on some other country's rocket.

@EB-nz1qv Ай бұрын

One giant leap for mankind.

@kadiummusic Ай бұрын

And yet they still can't get out of low earth orbit in 2024. 🤔

@sebastiannolte1201 Ай бұрын

I also still cannot take a flight with 2200 km/h in 2024, although It was possible in 1977. Does that mean that the Concorde was fake? No. It just means, that there is no current vehicle to do that and that nobody sees the need to design a new one for economical reasons. But we meanwhile have a vehicle to bring humans to the moon, the SLS rocket with the Orion spacecraft, which is in development for years. And the first successful flight (Artemis 1, unmanned) around the moon was already in November 2023, the next one (Artemis 2, again around the moon, but with humans in it) now was postponed several times, should be November 2024, but now to September 2025. We will see. The crew was already announced in 2023. And of course we only talk about humans here. We send satellites, probes etc. beyond LEO all the time.

@IbnBahtuta Ай бұрын

@@sebastiannolte1201 Yawn.

@howardroark6594 Ай бұрын

We've sent space probes completely out of our solar system and received scientific data all the way back to earth. We've sent probes to asteroids and captured samples that have been returned to earth for analysis. The JWST sits at L2 while looking back almost all the way back in time to the Big Bang.

@dutchymon 24 күн бұрын

@@howardroark6594 After NASA showed up in The Netherlands in 1969 with Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Micheal Collins and presented Our Prime Minister with petrified wood fake Moon rock from most likely Arizona, I stopped believing all the space BS, and grew up.