3 ms·
Agreed on all counts and, fundamentally, while the Bell X1 involved using a whole lot of technology that did not exist in the Wright flyer (rocket engine, metal
by Tloewald 11y ago
Agreed on all counts and, fundamentally, while the Bell X1 involved using a whole lot of technology that did not exist in the Wright flyer (rocket engine, metal airframe, rigid control surfaces), SpaceX essentially combined modern computers with things Apollo already achieved (indeed, the Apollo program involved landing rockets on the moon just with a human pilot instead of a computer).
- nickff 11y agoTo be fair to the computer, it did all of the hard work. The LEM was probably not controllable by a human alone. Even when the commanders selected manual mode (as they did on all but one landing), they were really just controlling the outer loop of the LEM.
- Tloewald 11y agoIt did all the work the way computers do all the work on jet planes today, yet pilots still made a big difference. Neil Armstrong saved Apollo 11 from catastrophe, flying the LEM by the seat of his spacesuit.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- marvin 11y agoThe Apollo lunar landers had plenty of computer assistance, both for navigation, guidance and control during landing. E.g. to control the throttle during final descent so that the spacecraft didn't reach zero vertical velocity and start moving upwards again. The landings were much less automated than they would be today, but Apollo would have been vastly more difficult without computers.