Imagine an early NASA engineer glancing from the room-sized mainframe computers of the 1960s to the pocket calculators of today. In just a few decades, technology advanced from giant boxes with flashing vacuum tubes to microchips far more powerful than what guided the pioneering astronauts. It was this tremendous computing innovation that turned mankind‘s ancient dream of space travel into an everyday reality.
In the brief 66 years since NASA‘s founding, we‘ve progressed from unmanned satellites to lunar landings to year-long stays aboard space stations. Computers have enabled everything from smoothly operating satellites to nearly autonomous navigation on missions billions of miles from home – all while withstanding the harshest conditions imaginable. As the early NASA engineers tackled challenge after challenge, they fueled computer breakthroughs that accelerated technological change beyond anything the 20th century had seen before.
| Year | Computer | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 1965 | IBM Gemini Computer | – 4KB memory – Onboard digital fly-by-wire |
| 1969 | Apollo Guidance Computer | – 32KB memory – Guided missions to Moon |
| 1997 | Sojourner Mars Rover | – 20MHz CPU – First rover on Mars |
| 2012 | Curiosity Mars Rover | – 200MHz CPU – Runs fully autonomous on Mars |
This articles explores those breakthroughs and the computers that made epic space exploration possible – starting in the early days of NASA and leading up to current missions far beyond Earth.
The Harsh Reality: Using Computers Outside Earth‘s Protection
Before ever launching computers toward the stars, NASA engineers faced basic questions that decades of dramatic innovation have now answered. How do you make electronic systems survive the violent blast of launch before facing the temperature extremes of space – blazing hot in sunlit areas but bitter cold in shadowed regions? What about radiation which bombards anything outside Earth‘s protective atmosphere? Or the zero gravity and high g-forces space presents?
Early on, the concepts now considered standard simply didn‘t exist. Components had to be hardened for extreme environments. Systems required multiple backups since no one could run repairs 200,000 miles from home. And for new, longer missions? There weren‘t even programming languages yet to automate all the required tasks!
1961-1969: Computers Mature Alongside the Space Program
When Yuri Gagarin became the first human in orbit in April 1961, NASA realized America needed its own space project spotlight. The Gemini program, targeting a 1965 launch, would lay vital groundwork – focusing on tasks like rendezvous and docking procedures needed for an eventual moon shot. At the time, even basic satellites relied on imprecise analog systems. So making Gemini fully controllable via digital computer represented a huge step up.
IBM custom-built the world‘s first computer designed to fly in space for Project Gemini. Roughly the size of a full-tower desktop today, it was incredibly compact for the era. But size constraints meant core memory instead of disk drives with paging to optimize the 4KB onboard. The tough thermionic packaging could handle vibration and heat unlike commercial computers. And with discrete solid-state circuits replacing failure-prone vacuum tubes, Gemini‘s computer vastly outperformed anything feasible previously.
Running at only 12,500 calculations per second – barely enough for a digital watch today – Gemini‘s computer handled everything from pre-launch checks to descent guidance. And it represented just the first step…
Apollo Guidance Computer – Pocket Calculator that Reached the Moon
When President Kennedy committed to the moon shot, MIT was tapped to build the onboard computer controlling humanity‘s ride the quarter million miles from home. The result – the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) – became a key piece of the Apollo spacecraft. Despite weighing just 70 pounds and consuming a mere 55 watts, the AGC handled everything from liftoff to lunar descent.
Reliability was paramount with human lives depending on success. So the AGC ran multiple redundant systems in parallel – requiring agreement between results or it would fail-stop until ground computers could intervene. This made the system far safer since failure scenarios were reduced from loss of vehicle to instead alerting Mission Control of anomalies.
Despite it‘s modest specs – 4KB RAM, 72KB read-only memory – the AGC‘s creative software engineers devised ingenious workarounds to unlock every bit of power. One trick used the restart capability to reuse the same memory areas rather than relying on ultra-limited disk space. The code itself was woven into physical core rope memory – unaffected by radiation and lasting indefinitely whether powered on or off.
As astronaut Gus Grissom famously said, the AGC was the "fourth crew member" critical to success on each Apollo flight including Neil Armstrong‘s famous giant leap for mankind on July 20, 1969.
Present Day: Computers Drive Epic Voyages Past Mars
These days with smartphones packing more memory than all of NASA in 1969, you‘d expect space probes to be overflowing with computing power. But even now, radiation issues, fault tolerance requirements, and electrical limits necessitate efficient, minimal designs. Every ounce still makes a difference for spacecraft costing tens of thousands per pound launched.
For example, 2012‘s Curiosity Mars rover runs 100% autonomously 175 million miles from home. But it‘s still based around a radiation-hardened 20-year-old 200MHz G3 PowerPC processor – no speed daemon by modern standards. However, that humble chip‘s 10 watts energy draw lets Curiosity operate for years on tiny Plutonium batteries. Rover‘s don‘t carry an IT admin along on maintenance calls!
Since Curiosity‘s launch, scientists have been amazed by detailed terrain maps and incredible HD images revealing the water-rich history of Mars‘ Gale crater landing zone. That‘s all thanks to Curiosity‘s humble embedded computer directing the rover‘s pathfinding, drilling operations, weather sensors, and data acquisition.
To Infinity & Beyond: Computers Key to Living Amongst the Stars
Computers have clearly enabled incredible progress in a few short decades – from early unmanned satellites to survived years on dusty Mars. So if the trend continues, what does the future hold as we aim beyond short stops at neighboring worlds?
Elon Musk‘s SpaceX already pioneered computer-controlled precision landing of orbital boosters so rockets can be reused rather than crashing. That and other innovations around autonomous flight, solar power improvements, and sustainable life support systems could enable establishing permanent colonies on Mars in coming decades. With supply trips every two years when close orbits enable efficient transfers, settlement might transition from purely government endeavors today to destinations accessible to civilians tomorrow.
And as humans spread to the stars, you know space-hardened computers will continue playing essential roles. Perhaps helping shield passengers from radiation dangers during years long interstellar journeys. Or maybe managing robotic setup of colonies awaiting pioneer settlers light years from home. Wherever we go, clever coded machines will trailblaze the way just as they‘ve enabled every achievement since NASA first aimed skyward!
Of course no one can truly predict how far computing advancements might take human space exploration through the next 60 years. But after seeing how key early investment was to progress so far, I‘m excited to see what the future holds! Perhaps our computers will become sophisticated enough for self-repairing interstellar probes someday. Or maybe even power suits that let you personally fly on Mars and the Moon. Wherever innovation takes us, space computers have already proven good at one thing – making the seemingly impossible very much real. And the magic of engineering means the only limit ahead is human imagination!
