Apollo Saturn V

The Saturn V was a super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA for the Apollo lunar landing programme. In three stages and powered by liquid fuel, it remains the only vehicle to have carried humans beyond low-Earth orbit.

Apollo Lunar Module

The lunar module was the first crewed spacecraft to operate exclusively in a vacuum and the only spacecraft to date that has landed humans anywhere other than Earth.

The ascent stage contained the crew compartment with its own Ascent Propulsion System (APS), life support system, and sixteen thruster motors for directional control. A docking hatch on top provided access to the command module and a forward hatch provided access to the lunar surface.

The descent stage consisted of a throttleable Descent Propulsion System (DPS) for a controlled descent to the lunar surface, assisted by a downward facing Doppler radar. A probe extending from one of the landing pads illuminated a “contact light” just before touching down. The descent stage also served as a launch pad for the ascent stage’s launch back to the Command Module.

Display Boards for The Computer Museum of America, Roswell, Georgia, USA

Five of these F-1 rocket engines powered the first stage of the Saturn V and remain the most powerful single combustion chamber liquid-propellant rocket engines ever built.

The Apollo primary guidance, navigation and control system (PGNCS) was a self-contained inertial guidance system fitted to both the Command module and the Lunar Module. Shown here are the three gyroscopes that comprised the inertial measurement unit (IMU).

The Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) is a digital computer produced for the Apollo program that was installed on board each Apollo command module (CM) and Apollo Lunar Module (LM). The AGC provided computation and electronic interfaces for guidance, navigation, and control of the spacecraft.

The AGC and its DSKY user interface were developed in the early 1960s for the Apollo program by the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory and first flew in 1966. The AGC was the first computer based on silicon integrated circuits. The computer’s performance was comparable to the first generation of home computers from the late 1970s, such as the Apple II, TRS-80, and Commodore PET.

Most of the software on the AGC is stored in a special read-only memory known as core rope memory, fashioned by weaving wires through and around magnetic cores, though a small amount of read/write core memory was available.

Astronauts communicated with the AGC using a numeric display and keyboard called the DSKY (for “display and keyboard”, pronounced “DIS-kee”).

Command Module input/output diagram

The AGC location in the Command Module. Two DSKY units were fitted, one on the CM pilot’s console and another in the lower equipment bay, close to the sextant, telescope and Inertial Measurement Unit.

Lunar Module input/output diagram.

The AGC location in the Ascent Stage of the Lunar Module. One DSKY is fitted between the two crew stations.