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Man on the Moon


The third episode of Moon Machines, titled Navigation Computer tells us all about the process of building the Apollo Guidance Computer. It amazes me the amount of work that goes into a project of this size, and it has always surprised me how many people don't care about space travel, or even the amount of people who, despite seeing all the people involved and all the hard work, still deny the moon landing ever happened. 

I also found it really interesting how seemingly unorganized MIT's software team was while working on this project. This isn't meant as a jab at them, but the fact that one of today's most prestigious institutions didn't have a well-defined plan speaks of how much project management and software development in general have evolved in such little time. 

However, it's also funny to see how little things have changed in that regard, in the sense that even today, the amount of work that goes into developing software is grossly underestimated (even by ourselves), and very often we end up working to reach our goal without really knowing how to get there. On that note, although some of the testimonials on this regard were a little bit sad, it was inspiring to see what can be achieved when so many passionate people work towards the same goal. 

Putting aside the software part of the video, I've always been interested in space travel, and no matter how many times I see or read about it, the topic is always as breathtaking as the first time. Seeing what we were able to achieve back then, how much every aspect of the technology used has evolved today, and today's efforts to make space travel a more common occurrence, I can't help but be hopeful that there will be many more advancements happening soon, and I personally can't wait to see what comes next!

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