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Comment by DanBC | Hacker News Reader

Not quite sure why this links to the code, and not the top level which has a lot more useful information (such as the simulator needed to run the code).

http://www.ibiblio.org/apollo/

There's some more information here: http://googlecode.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/apollo-11-missions-...

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That's great - I actually came here to say "this is cool in an abstract way but what the fuck am I looking at? I'd love to learn a little bit more about the system". Turns out space folks are great at sharing knowledge!

By the way, last night I read the radio transcript from the time Neil and Buzz exited the lunar module: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11.step.html (that site has loads of other Apollo transcripts too). It's annotated and has links to pics and videos. Fascinating.

>Turns out space folks are great at sharing knowledge!

I've read that one of the problems a new moon-or-beyond space program would have is that we are so far removed from the Apollo program that all institutional knowledge that was gained is gone because most of the engineers on those projects have passed away.

On the other hand, how much of that institutional knowledge is still useful? Certainly some of it is, but I think experience with the F1-B shows that new knowledge, like 3-D printing, means that parts of the old knowledge aren't needed.

I am a mechanical designer by profession and just want to point out that even I who use a 3D printer on a daily basis can't think of any other manufacturing method it has made completely obsolete. It is more like just another tool in my tool belt that adds another way to make something. As with any tool it has it's advantages and it's drawbacks and will only make sense to use it in certain scenarios.

Certainly. That's why I said "parts" and not "all".

What I meant is described in slightly more detail at http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/04/how-nasa-brought-the-... , in the section "3D printing goes to space"

> Using state of the art manufacturing processes where possible actually reduces cost—even if a newer manufacturing method is more expensive, the cost reductions gained from the design simplifications more than tip the scales. In particular, Dynetics and PWR are using techniques like selective laser melting and hot isostatic pressing (HIP) to "grow" entire complex engine parts out of metal powders. The Dynetics team is focusing as much as possible on reducing welds and joins, and therefore reducing assembly and manufacturing.

I don't know about that [1].

'NASA engineer here. I think it's actually kind of ludicrous to claim that we have somehow "lost" the technology of the Apollo program.'

1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7304980

Thanks. We changed to that from http://www.ibiblio.org/apollo/listings/Comanche055/.

Edit: persuaded to change it back. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8066666.

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