The guidance computer in the Apollo mission to the moon had around 64KB of memory – 8,000,000 times LESS than the highest capacity SD memory cards.
The Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) was more basic than the electronics in modern toasters, according to a Computer Weekly report, but played a critical role in getting humans to the moon back in the 1960s.
So, it’s incredible to think that tiny SD or microSD memory card neatly tucked away in your mobile phone, tablet, camera or device has such massive storage and costs pennies in comparison to the vast sums spent on the space race.
A microSD memory card with up to 512GB capacity has been unveiled in recent months.
Of course, there was quite literally an army of people involved in the moon landing programme, a vast amount of money and lots of other computers.
But it’s pretty amazing all in all, especially as much of the technology developed during the space race forms the basis for much of modern computing, so we have a lot to thank those pioneers!