I recommend reading Digital Apollo[0] about the development of the computer, and actually the entire man-machine interface of early spaceflight. The machines we

I recommend reading Digital Apollo[0] about the development of the computer, and actually the entire man-machine interface of early spaceflight. The machines were made in the milieu where computer mediated control was highly controversial. (e.g. "A machine might work when everything is fine, but will never work in an emergency.") Essentially there was huge argument between pilots and engineers, about how much automation should be done. It was so bad, that pilots even tried to insist on flying the rocket into orbit. (If I recall correctly, in simulations in a centrifuge, only Armstrong was able to successfully not crash the Saturn V in a manually controlled ascent.) The other recurring theme in the book is the disturbingly short MTTF for flight computers during the mid 1960s. Statistically, NASA had to plan for a computer failure in route to the moon, and so repair-vs-replace became a serious issue. (Yeah, they seriously considered soldering in zero-g.) [0] http://web.mit.edu/digitalapollo/ http://web.mit.edu/digitalapollo/