With NASA and astronauts turning their focus to touchdown on the Moon once more by early 2028 within the Artemis program, persons are as soon as once more exhibiting an appreciation for what NASA completed by touchdown efficiently on the Moon in 1969. The expertise that the Apollo 11 spacecraft utilized in 1969 was innovative in how NASA’s engineers mixed a number of elements to work collectively. However, in comparison with at this time’s shopper expertise gear, Apollo 11 was working at a definite drawback in pace and energy.
Even although the Sixties area race influenced the event of at this time’s expertise, virtually any trendy tech product provides considerably extra processing energy and laptop reminiscence than what was obtainable all through the Apollo 11 spacecraft. Some of at this time’s devices that supply extra energy than what the Apollo 11 astronauts had at their disposal embody digital calculators, good lightbulbs, automotive infotainment methods, smartphones, and smartwatches. (Some trendy musical greeting playing cards could even have extra processing energy.)
When discussing the computing energy within the Apollo 11 spacecraft, persons are referring to the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC). It generated real-time navigation calculations, creating these calculations extra precisely and much quicker than the human astronauts might do. NASA had extra highly effective ground-based laptop methods in its Mission Control Center (MCC), however the lag in radio communications of some seconds was too nice, which means the navigation calculations wanted to happen on board. The must restrict the AGC’s weight for a profitable liftoff additionally restricted the computing {hardware} it might comprise.
The graphing calculator you had in class had way more energy
During highschool math and introductory school programs, you might have used a Texas Instruments TI-84 graphing calculator. It’s a preferred mannequin for serving to college students make a wide range of calculations throughout testing. With many lecture rooms prohibiting use of the web and smartphones throughout testing, college students proceed to make use of the TI-84 at this time, regardless of complaints over the fee. Since the TI-84 initially went on sale in 2004, its fundamental {hardware} elements and specs have remained the identical. Still, it has considerably extra processing energy than the Apollo 11 AGC, as some estimates say the TI-84’s processing pace operates about 350 occasions quicker than the AGC might handle.
The Apollo 11 laptop had the equal of 4KB of RAM (which is random entry reminiscence that loses its information when the pc loses energy). The AGC had 72KB of ROM (which is read-only reminiscence that shops information completely). The code saved in ROM was written earlier than the astronauts blasted off, and so they couldn’t change it. The TI-84 graphing calculator has 149KB of RAM and 3MB of ROM (or 3,072KB), each of that are considerably bigger than Apollo 11 had obtainable.
A sensible gentle bulb has extra processing pace than Apollo 11
The first good lighting merchandise appeared within the late Nineteen Nineties, however good LEDs with a contemporary design appeared within the 2010s, providing distant management via a cellular companion app. Smart gentle bulbs normally require a processor inside to handle the indicators they receives from the app and thru your private home’s wi-fi community. The processor additionally manages any energy schedules you’ve got arrange for the bulb’s computerized operation, the altering of lighting depth and colours, and measuring the vitality getting used.
In itemizing their product specs, good gentle bulb producers usually focus extra on the sunshine output in lumens, the sunshine’s temperature vary, and the vitality financial savings obtainable than on the processing energy they provide. However, Vimpo, a preferred {hardware} hacker, took a sensible gentle bulb aside and used it to put in a “Minecraft” sport server. The tinkerer, who made a YouTube video of the method, reported that the sunshine bulb had 276KB of RAM, 128KB of ROM, and a processor that operates at 192 MHz. In addition to having far smaller quantities of RAM and ROM than the good gentle bulb, the Apollo 11 AGC’s processor solely operated at an equal pace of 0.043 MHz.
Your automotive’s infotainment system is changing into a reminiscence hog
The Apollo 11 steering laptop helped the crew journey from Earth to the moon, a journey that coated about 240,000 miles. However, the AGC required only a fraction of the processing energy to cowl this distance in comparison with what your trendy automotive’s navigation and infotainment system must information you throughout the two.4 miles wanted to achieve a brand new neighborhood restaurant, for instance.
When working your infotainment system and automotive stereo utilizing an Android head unit, suggestions say you will want at the very least 4GB of RAM. This quantity permits for fundamental navigation, audio streaming, or managing telephone calls whereas driving. However, 8GB might be the higher alternative when you plan to personal the automotive for at the very least 5 years. Compare that to Apollo 11’s AGC, which had the equal of 4KB of RAM, and a contemporary vehicle infotainment system wants about 1,000,000 occasions extra RAM for the advisable minimal setup.
Future vehicles, particularly luxurious fashions, will probably demand considerably extra RAM. For instance, the MBUX platform from Mercedes-Benz will provide head-up shows, video and audio streaming, and different options, because it combines navigation, leisure, and connectivity. It may have as a lot as 24GB of RAM for these capabilities.
Smartphones are a lot extra highly effective, they grew to become cameras on a latest moon mission
The iPhone is extra highly effective than NASA’s Apollo 11 AGC and has been since its debut virtually 20 years in the past. One of the most recent fashions, the Apple iPhone 17, has both 8GB or 12GB of RAM, relying on the model you choose. This offers the iPhone 17 about 2 million or 3 million occasions extra RAM capability than what was discovered with Apollo 11’s steering laptop with 4KB. (The unique iPhone from 2007 had 128MB of RAM, tens of hundreds of occasions greater than the AGC.) Apple would not share the operational speeds of its processors for the iPhone 17, but it surely’s anticipated to be between 2.6GHz and 4.26GHz, considerably quicker than the AGC’s processors.
In a twist that exhibits how far area journey expertise has come, crew members on the Artemis II mission that traveled across the moon and again in early 2026 carried iPhone 17 Pro Max fashions to shoot images of the journey. Even with hundreds of thousands of occasions extra RAM and processing energy in these iPhones than what the Apollo 11 astronauts had of their AGC, the fashionable astronauts solely wanted the pocket-sized gadgets to function costly cameras.
A tiny smartwatch appears to be like like a sci-fi system subsequent to the AGC
Wrist-sized communicators in watches have lengthy been a staple of science fiction. From watch-sized communicators in “Dick Tracy” comedian strips within the Forties to spy watches in trendy “Spy Kids” motion pictures, these wrist-sized communicators clear up issues in a wide range of sci-fi conditions. Apollo 11 astronauts did not have these devices within the Sixties, however we’ve gadgets which can be near them at this time within the type of smartwatches.
The concept of recent smartwatches may need appeared like sci-fi to the Apollo 11 astronauts due to their dimension and computing capabilities. One of the most recent smartwatches, the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2, provides roughly half 1,000,000 occasions extra RAM storage than the Apollo 11 AGC (2GB in comparison with 4KB). Even the primary Samsung smartwatch, the Samsung Galaxy Gear from 2013, had greater than 125,000 occasions as a lot RAM (512MB) than the AGC. The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2’s face measures simply 47 mm (1.85 inches) in diameter, and the system weighs 61.5 grams. Meanwhile, the Apollo 11’s AGC occupied virtually 1 cubic foot of area and weighed about 70 kilos. Though, nobody shall be sporting it on a wrist.