The fact that an iPhone is four times as powerful as the Curiosity rover’s onboard computer is pretty cool, but just take a look at the meagre tech the Apollo Program used to get into space. The computer was so pitiful that the software of the Apollo guidance computer was literally handwoven into its memory.
The overall memory of the Apollo Guidance Computer was equivalent to 72kb (in modern terms) and the software had to be woven into the core rope memory. Women in factories put the software together by looping wires through a core to represent the 1’s and 0’s of computer programs. As you can imagine, the process was extremely slow, tedious and a nightmare to put together but still… space! These things were used to go to space! Unbelievable. [YouTube]