Modern smartphones possess computational power that is millions of times greater than the onboard computer that enabled the first human landing on the Moon in 1969. A comparison of technical specifications vividly demonstrates the pace of technological progress over the last half-century.

RBC-Ukraine, citing a study by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has published a detailed analysis of the evolution of computing technology in the aerospace industry.

Technical specifications of the AGC

The command module of the Apollo 11 mission was equipped with the AGC (Apollo Guidance Computer). At the time of its creation, it was a cutting-edge development, but by modern standards, its parameters appear extremely modest.

According to MIT documentation, the AGC onboard computer had the following specifications:

  • Random Access Memory (RAM): Only 2,048 "words" of rewritable memory. Since one word consisted of 16 bits, the total volume was 32,768 bits or exactly 4 kilobytes.
  • Read-Only Memory (ROM): The device contained 72 kilobytes of data that could not be rewritten.
  • Processor frequency: The central processor operated at a frequency of 2.048 MHz, but its effective speed was approximately 0.043 MHz.

Comparison with modern smartphones

For contrast, let us consider the specifications of a modern flagship smartphone, such as the iPhone 17 Pro. The gap in performance turns out to be colossal:

  • Random Access Memory: The iPhone 17 Pro has 12 gigabytes of RAM. This is approximately 2.93 million times more than the Apollo computer.
  • Processor frequency: Modern smartphone processors operate in the range of 850 to 2100 MHz, which is orders of magnitude higher than AGC figures.
  • Storage capacity: A smartphone can store up to 1 terabyte of information, whereas the rocket had only 72 kilobytes.

Scientists emphasize: even if the computational power of all AGC modules ever created were combined into a single complex, it still could not compete with the capabilities of a single modern smartphone.

Why an iPhone cannot replace an onboard computer

Despite the obvious advantage of mobile devices in terms of raw numbers, installing an iPhone in a spacecraft would be a step backward for the aerospace industry. Scientists explain this through fundamental differences in architecture and reliability requirements.

Controlling rockets requires a specialized system with high radiation resistance and guaranteed fault tolerance. Modern spacecraft require specific computational power.

As an example, consider the Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX. It uses dual-core processors with a clock speed of around 4.10 GHz, which is twice the peak frequency of mobile chips. The main task for new lunar missions remains not so much the "raw" power of processors, but the physical reliability and safety of rocket systems.