Link: https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/recreate-the-apollo-guidance-computer/

Comments

I remember watching the first moon landing on TV in 1969 as a high school freshman. I'm pretty sure this computer was shown on the air.

Seeing it and thinking of how much more powerful a smartphone is today reminded me of a 1958 story by Isaac Asimov, The Feeling of Power, about a future where everybody has pocket computers, which they rely on so much they've forgotten how to do arithmetic, or even how to write numbers. Space travel has a problem - the massive amount of copper wiring in onboard computers is making ships too heavy to fly. Then a scientist rediscovers how to do arithmetic on paper, which he calls "graphitics". Astronauts will be able to use it to do the calculations for course changes etc. by hand, replacing tons of heavy computers and revolutionizing space travel.