In 3 to 5 years: "So here we are at Rocket Garden and this is Saturn V rocket. We're about to try to power it up and see if it works, fix any problems we find and do a launch sequence dry run".
That would be OK. I'm more worried about the future series about "An anonymous collector has lend us a warhead lost in a historic Broken Arrow incident and we going to restore it". Especially given that the guys already know how to control rockets and and supersonic jets. I mean, technically Marc's team has more access to technology capable of delivering a first strike than North Korea ;-)
Imagine dumping an incredibly obscure yet Nationally important ROM from the early 70's and immediately running it on emulated hardware. I can not imagine something more cool.
I almost fell off my chair when I saw the thumbnail for this. I assumed the DFBW pallets had been long since discarded. Absolutely stunning work, Mike deserves nothing but praise for preserving the code from this pivotal piece of computing and aeronautical history.
I had the privilege of working as an engineering intern at NASA Dryden (now Armstrong) Flight Research Center during the late 1970s in the Flight Systems Technical Laboratory. I remember sitting in the F-8 Fly-By-Wire cockpit assisting in some pre-flight testing. (Being duly warned about the "live" ejection seat, I made sure to touch nothing!). I don't know if this F-8 had the AGC or the later version of the FBW electronics, but I can certify that the F-8 is a HUGE aircraft. As a young intern it seemed bigger than any fighter aircraft should have been. In my later career I worked briefly as a field service engineer, then for over 35 years as a software engineer (a much easier job... physically, at least). NASA was a dream job that allowed me to work around some of the most amazing aerospace tech of the day. I even got to witness the Space Shuttle Approach and Landing tests from the Dryden flight line. Wow. I am forever grateful for having had that opportunity.
Great stuf. Please write down here or in a blog anything that you recall from those years that would otherwise be lost to history. The internet never forgets but us humans do. Mention names of people and places, and especially things that were never written down. They discussed the LN2 cooling system, do you remember how it was filled, how often?
Flying by wire, controlled by rope and going at a rate of knots… Joking aside, an amazing achievement by all and astonishing to see Mike extract and start executing the code in the emulator on the spot!
It would be hard to overstate how important Mike is -- and indeed all of Marc's crew -- to capturing and preserving some of the most important technical history of mankind.
Guys, you are from another world. No pun intended. As an electronics engineer and space fan, it fascinates me to watch your videos and see what both the Apollo program and you could/can achieve. Amazing. Thanks for bringing all this history to light and letting us watch it happen.
I suppose the obvious question given that now we know the team has access to an AGC in the hands of an enthusiastic collector (whom we've already seen enjoys seeing the things in his collection actually function) is: Should we hope to see another AGC restoration series at some point in the future? (With Mr. Jurvetson's kind permission, of course 😁) I can't imagine you guys wouldn't jump at the opportunity to do it again. I think I speak for all of us when I say that we would be incredibly excited to see "Apollo Guidance Computer Restoration II: The Potting Strikes Back" 😅
the digital fly-by-wire on the F8 was covered by another youtuber called "Alexander the ok", the video is named "Digital Fly-By-Wire: The Apollo Guidance Computer's final gift to the world"
This was my first project as a coop student. Ken Szalai and Dwain Deets were the driving forces and i learned the biz on that airplane. Still remember some of th DSKY codes
Some old tubes slowly heating up and glowing, slightly broken ventilator coming to life and buzzing in the background, some beeps, big analog dial with vibrating hand, small dial with the hand turning around like crazy - that's how Mike's contraption should look like.
Oh what a treat to hear a new CuriousMarc video. Mike you are a god. I hope your deep knowledge of Apollo systems help you in your day job, but if not thank you for preserving this important part of human history
Running the code like seconds after having downloaded it via USB is so badass 😀 You guys are awesome. Your videos are more exciting than any action movie!
Great overview of the digital fly-by-wire program! 14:58 - If you need an airplane you can bang around for research purposes, a carrier-based fighter is a good choice…
I recall canada had a fly by wire plane in the late 50’s, and the f-16 is one of the first mass produced aircraft using the system. Had no idea the f-8 was an experimental platform let alone using apollo components . Cool stuff.
The CF-105 (Arrow) had an analogue fly-by-wire system. " This system also included solid-state components and system redundancy, was designed to be integrated with a computerised navigation and automatic search and track radar, was flyable from ground control with data uplink and downlink, and provided artificial feel (feedback) to the pilot." (Wikipedia). The F-8 was a digital system which was only possible with the "miniaturized" computers developed for the Apollo program. One of the important things the Arrow program developed was the artificial feedback for the pilots who were used to literally feeling the flow of air over the control surfaces through the stick. The lack of feedback was causing all kinds of problems in the simulator until they developed the feedback system. A lot of aerospace engineers went to work for NASA when the Arrow program was terminated. I wonder if some of them worked on the Apollo and F-8 systems?
@@michaelcherry8952 oh absolutely, the original comment only mentions fly by wire...not whether it was analog vs digital. Fairly certain, having talked with some of the peripheral players in the Arrow program, the flight system was good as analog, but they were aware of the potential of digital...I imagine it would have been a matter of time.
If you can, listen to the BBC podcast “13 Minutes to the Moon”. Its a wonderful, patient and in depth exploration of the moon landing, 13 episodes of drama, human interest, and technological achievement. I think it’s great. Enjoy!!
Thank you so much for the elaboration on the Fly by wire history (with elevator music). Those explanations in itself are a beautiful contribution to the educational aspect of a museum's work (as is the work you all do so wonderfully and dedicated). Thanks! -And hats off to the work that ran into the pocket reader! :D
This is quite literally the only channel to which I am subscribed where I immediately click to watch the video. Work can wait. Also 12:08 has a computer looking very surprised.
Every time I hear "if you follow the channel..." in Marc's voice, I swear my blood pressure drops a few points because I know I'm about to learn something new and interesting.
You guys rock!👍 This series is really interesting, to be able to read and understand the code used in the Apollo guidance systems is a fantastic achievement. Please continue with this work.
I have 3 videos of his collection already, but it would take many, many more to give his collection justice: Steve’s collection part 1: th-cam.com/video/3Y-MosGsFMs/w-d-xo.html Steve’s collection part 2: th-cam.com/video/5ZBRw07Ibgo/w-d-xo.html Steve’s collection part 3: th-cam.com/video/3Y-MosGsFMs/w-d-xo.html
Factinating as always. I'm shocked find out the AGCs were used even after the Apollo. But it makes sense, why not re-use it, if it's already been developed? Many kudos to Mike and his dilligent efforts to save and preserve this important step in our computing history. You sir are a legend! And thanks to Marc for having the camera ready and giving us the over-the-shoulder man on site view of the process. :D
Fantastic as always. Can't compliment enough. Your content is a wonderful mix between tech history, storytelling, science in a narration of importance. These tales help developing a view on why and how the progress has been made. You are really good at this. Many thanks and looking forward to the next vid :), Greetings from the Netherlands.
Hat's off to mike, he is one multi-talented engineer: Jack of all Trades; Master of Most!! Hope you find more Apollo stuff to reverse-engineer. How about the Saturn-V guidance and control ring? Thanks so much for all you do; absolutely fascinating...
Resistors can definitely go bad, but usually after many, many years. Unusual for a resistor to fail early. You can imagine the quality control was very good for each component by NASA. Resistors tend to fail open rather than in a short.
NO WAYYYY!!! Dang shame the fly-by-wire ropes weren't in there. Would be really cool to have them and fly a model airplane with them. If you ever get to that point, I'm a commercial licensed pilot, and licensed UAV pilot. Would love to test fly it!
Resistors most definitely can go bad. There value can change. Their values normally go up but I had a situation once on an old ocilloscope where a large value resistor went Down. We found it and fixed the thyrotron sweep circuit.
People make jokes about how slow the AGC is by modern standards, but this peoject shows that this little computer was a screamer by the standards of its time!
Mike doing more Apollo software recovering work as all museums in the world combined, according to Marc, is just astonishing. Great job you're doing with your amazing little rope reader Mike!
Marc, you made a few passing comments on an Apollo fuel cell during a previous visit to Jurvetson’s museum. We’re all waiting for that series to drop…. 😉
Great video, I had no idea the AGC was used as a test bed for early experiments in digital fly by wire. Too bad the Rope memory was not the actual F8 program.
Apollo 7 CM is in Dallas at Frontiers of Flight. I don't know if it still has it's AGC in it or not... might be an idea to contact them and see about getting access.
I love all you videos!! Especially this series! Have you all come down to the Huntsville Space and Rocket center? I was just there and there is an AGC there and other Apollo era electronics.
Last month I was at the MIT museum in Boston...they have some of those Apollo or maybe Skylab computers on display...has he already been able to read them?
@@CuriousMarc they should also go get hubble. either repair it and resend it or put it in a museum. i personally think they should put it in a museum because hubble 2.0 and so on are already being drawn up
In 3 to 5 years: "So here we are at Rocket Garden and this is Saturn V rocket. We're about to try to power it up and see if it works, fix any problems we find and do a launch sequence dry run".
🤣 I hear it in my head with Marc's voice!
Snoopy is still out there.
That would be OK. I'm more worried about the future series about "An anonymous collector has lend us a warhead lost in a historic Broken Arrow incident and we going to restore it". Especially given that the guys already know how to control rockets and and supersonic jets. I mean, technically Marc's team has more access to technology capable of delivering a first strike than North Korea ;-)
By the end of the decade...
@@gryffuscze Me too, including the elevator music. ;)
It's always a good day when Marc gets curious.
And when Mike is learning the ropes.
Indeed, about all the de-flopments happened.. I love his dialect.. or slang.. :)
Mike knows more about the AGC software than anyone currently alive I bet.
subtle 😂
Dudes a gangster!
Imagine dumping an incredibly obscure yet Nationally important ROM from the early 70's and immediately running it on emulated hardware. I can not imagine something more cool.
I almost fell off my chair when I saw the thumbnail for this. I assumed the DFBW pallets had been long since discarded. Absolutely stunning work, Mike deserves nothing but praise for preserving the code from this pivotal piece of computing and aeronautical history.
Love your video on this topic. Glad to see you in the comment section!
I fell from my chair too Alex.
I had the privilege of working as an engineering intern at NASA Dryden (now Armstrong) Flight Research Center during the late 1970s in the Flight Systems Technical Laboratory. I remember sitting in the F-8 Fly-By-Wire cockpit assisting in some pre-flight testing. (Being duly warned about the "live" ejection seat, I made sure to touch nothing!). I don't know if this F-8 had the AGC or the later version of the FBW electronics, but I can certify that the F-8 is a HUGE aircraft. As a young intern it seemed bigger than any fighter aircraft should have been. In my later career I worked briefly as a field service engineer, then for over 35 years as a software engineer (a much easier job... physically, at least). NASA was a dream job that allowed me to work around some of the most amazing aerospace tech of the day. I even got to witness the Space Shuttle Approach and Landing tests from the Dryden flight line. Wow. I am forever grateful for having had that opportunity.
This is awesome! Definitely an opportunity of a lifetime. Thank you for sharing your story!
Great stuf. Please write down here or in a blog anything that you recall from those years that would otherwise be lost to history. The internet never forgets but us humans do. Mention names of people and places, and especially things that were never written down. They discussed the LN2 cooling system, do you remember how it was filled, how often?
Flying by wire, controlled by rope and going at a rate of knots… Joking aside, an amazing achievement by all and astonishing to see Mike extract and start executing the code in the emulator on the spot!
Thats good
It would be hard to overstate how important Mike is -- and indeed all of Marc's crew -- to capturing and preserving some of the most important technical history of mankind.
Whatever it may be......
This TH-cam is a BOON for knowledge seekers...
Hats off to Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim.... 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
Guys, you are from another world. No pun intended. As an electronics engineer and space fan, it fascinates me to watch your videos and see what both the Apollo program and you could/can achieve. Amazing. Thanks for bringing all this history to light and letting us watch it happen.
I suppose the obvious question given that now we know the team has access to an AGC in the hands of an enthusiastic collector (whom we've already seen enjoys seeing the things in his collection actually function) is: Should we hope to see another AGC restoration series at some point in the future? (With Mr. Jurvetson's kind permission, of course 😁) I can't imagine you guys wouldn't jump at the opportunity to do it again. I think I speak for all of us when I say that we would be incredibly excited to see "Apollo Guidance Computer Restoration II: The Potting Strikes Back" 😅
oh no I just binged through the whole AGC playlist. : ( - It was an aswesome ride, cant wait for more
the digital fly-by-wire on the F8 was covered by another youtuber called "Alexander the ok", the video is named "Digital Fly-By-Wire: The Apollo Guidance Computer's final gift to the world"
Well this is all an incredibly pleasant surprise
hi there :) @@Alexander-the-ok
@@Alexander-the-ok love that video watched it 20 times
@@Alexander-the-ok
I just commented about in your video on the tri- propellant rocket engine.
This was my first project as a coop student. Ken Szalai and Dwain Deets were the driving forces and i learned the biz on that airplane. Still remember some of th DSKY codes
Terrific work. Future tech historians owe you so much!!
Any technical university with a computing department worth its salt should be handing out honorary doctorates to you guys.
I cent percent agree. This is top-tier engineering.
Amazing job mike. I have to say, your little rope-reader device makes quick work of this.
When all you have is a rope reader, every rope needs to be read :-)
I never knew the invention and/or practical application of fly-by-wire was based on the Apollo program. That's a real deep cut. I love this :)
Some old tubes slowly heating up and glowing, slightly broken ventilator coming to life and buzzing in the background, some beeps, big analog dial with vibrating hand, small dial with the hand turning around like crazy - that's how Mike's contraption should look like.
Oh what a treat to hear a new CuriousMarc video. Mike you are a god. I hope your deep knowledge of Apollo systems help you in your day job, but if not thank you for preserving this important part of human history
Wonderful video. Imagine being the test pilot for those PIO tests. So good to see this stuff being saved. You guys are amazing!
great technology, state of the art then for pro's, and what you now have as a hobbyist now. what a progress in the time.
Mike is a beast! What a glorious example of passion-driven engineering. I cannot thank you enough for this whole Apollo GNC computer series.
You are the right people at the right time, standing ovation from the technical historians of the future.
Oh, and Mike is just stunning. „Professional mac gyver“ if you need to describe him as short as possible
Running the code like seconds after having downloaded it via USB is so badass 😀
You guys are awesome. Your videos are more exciting than any action movie!
The second fully functional AGC in the world...? Mr Jurvetson, please, let the boys have at it.
Great overview of the digital fly-by-wire program! 14:58 - If you need an airplane you can bang around for research purposes, a carrier-based fighter is a good choice…
Great to watch these pieces of historic technology being recovered and made available to all.
I recall canada had a fly by wire plane in the late 50’s, and the f-16 is one of the first mass produced aircraft using the system. Had no idea the f-8 was an experimental platform let alone using apollo components . Cool stuff.
Fly by wire on the Avro Arrow
Fly by wire is not flight control augmentation with a real time computer interposed between.
The CF-105 (Arrow) had an analogue fly-by-wire system. " This system also included solid-state components and system redundancy, was designed to be integrated with a computerised navigation and automatic search and track radar, was flyable from ground control with data uplink and downlink, and provided artificial feel (feedback) to the pilot." (Wikipedia).
The F-8 was a digital system which was only possible with the "miniaturized" computers developed for the Apollo program.
One of the important things the Arrow program developed was the artificial feedback for the pilots who were used to literally feeling the flow of air over the control surfaces through the stick. The lack of feedback was causing all kinds of problems in the simulator until they developed the feedback system.
A lot of aerospace engineers went to work for NASA when the Arrow program was terminated. I wonder if some of them worked on the Apollo and F-8 systems?
@@michaelcherry8952 oh absolutely, the original comment only mentions fly by wire...not whether it was analog vs digital.
Fairly certain, having talked with some of the peripheral players in the Arrow program, the flight system was good as analog, but they were aware of the potential of digital...I imagine it would have been a matter of time.
I love this guy he’s so knowledgeable on Apollo
I am watching the movie "Apollo 13" on free-to-air TV in Australia, and watching this video during the ad breaks!
If you can, listen to the BBC podcast “13 Minutes to the Moon”. Its a wonderful, patient and in depth exploration of the moon landing, 13 episodes of drama, human interest, and technological achievement. I think it’s great.
Enjoy!!
Absolute brilliance, thanks for taking us for the ride!
That DSKY hanging out the thing brings a smile... :)
Thank you, that was fascinating ❤
Thank you so much for the elaboration on the Fly by wire history (with elevator music). Those explanations in itself are a beautiful contribution to the educational aspect of a museum's work (as is the work you all do so wonderfully and dedicated). Thanks! -And hats off to the work that ran into the pocket reader! :D
This is quite literally the only channel to which I am subscribed where I immediately click to watch the video. Work can wait.
Also 12:08 has a computer looking very surprised.
i dig steves collection and i dig even more he allows us all to see it and be used by ya'all ...amazing stuff ..amazing team :)
I'm amazed by the technical prowess of your team. I wish I could study all of this collector's objects in detail, I would spend days doing so.
The pure smartness, brightness and awesomeness of Mike is absolutely from beyond this planet and really amazing!
What a time to be alive! Hats off to Mike!
Every time I hear "if you follow the channel..." in Marc's voice, I swear my blood pressure drops a few points because I know I'm about to learn something new and interesting.
ThinkPad laptops are rock solid. Best laptop.
Amazing and brilliant work! Thank you Marc, Mike, and Ken. 👍🏻
Seriously Mike. Your efforts and accomplishments are impressive.
Nice work recovering these program. I would be sad to have lost these for ever.
Mike is way to crazy smart
You guys rock!👍
This series is really interesting, to be able to read and understand the code used in the Apollo guidance systems is a fantastic achievement.
Please continue with this work.
Great history lesson! Old NASA tech is just endlessly amazing for its time!
Ooh boy, it’s always a good day when you release a new video :D
While some people collect GBA or NES ROMs, Mike collects AGC ROMs. That's so immensely intriguing.
amazing amazing amazing amazing amazing !!!
How anything worked with the technology they had at the time still amazes me
I WE would LOVE to see if you could get a full tour of that AMAZING guys man cave !!
EVEN if it is over 2 or more episodes !!!
I have 3 videos of his collection already, but it would take many, many more to give his collection justice:
Steve’s collection part 1: th-cam.com/video/3Y-MosGsFMs/w-d-xo.html
Steve’s collection part 2: th-cam.com/video/5ZBRw07Ibgo/w-d-xo.html
Steve’s collection part 3: th-cam.com/video/3Y-MosGsFMs/w-d-xo.html
Fascinating, as always. Thank you!
Factinating as always. I'm shocked find out the AGCs were used even after the Apollo. But it makes sense, why not re-use it, if it's already been developed? Many kudos to Mike and his dilligent efforts to save and preserve this important step in our computing history. You sir are a legend! And thanks to Marc for having the camera ready and giving us the over-the-shoulder man on site view of the process. :D
Maik ist a Genius, love his Work!
just so happen to find another AGC lol
I can't press the like button hard enough! Great work! Thank you.
Pure alpha-nerd, bull-geek work! Thanks for assembling such a team and showing us how it's done.
More people like this in the world please.
This stuff will be the steam punk of the 22th century.
Fantastic as always. Can't compliment enough. Your content is a wonderful mix between tech history, storytelling, science in a narration of importance. These tales help developing a view on why and how the progress has been made. You are really good at this. Many thanks and looking forward to the next vid :), Greetings from the Netherlands.
Ken is right. There needs to be a more dramatic readout. Put some ws28xx on it that mirrors the progress or something. :)
That last line is really the truth!
Hat's off to mike, he is one multi-talented engineer: Jack of all Trades; Master of Most!!
Hope you find more Apollo stuff to reverse-engineer.
How about the Saturn-V guidance and control ring?
Thanks so much for all you do; absolutely fascinating...
Resistors can definitely go bad, but usually after many, many years. Unusual for a resistor to fail early. You can imagine the quality control was very good for each component by NASA. Resistors tend to fail open rather than in a short.
Best channel for a true tech nerd :) I LOVE THIS. I learn so much history here :) and new stuff too ofc.
NO WAYYYY!!! Dang shame the fly-by-wire ropes weren't in there. Would be really cool to have them and fly a model airplane with them. If you ever get to that point, I'm a commercial licensed pilot, and licensed UAV pilot. Would love to test fly it!
Here's hoping someone has them in their collection and they are in good shape.
Resistors most definitely can go bad. There value can change. Their values normally go up but I had a situation once on an old ocilloscope where a large value resistor went
Down. We found it and fixed the thyrotron sweep circuit.
Outstanding work, Mike!
At 22:20 I almost expected a CG voice to start saying: "Stop, Dave. Please stop, Dave!"
Marc i can say you and you team are legends
Nice video again guys.
Dam I help rebuild a F8 for thunderbird Aviation in Deer-valley Airport back in the 80’s
I’m geeking out over you geeking out over this tech.
People make jokes about how slow the AGC is by modern standards, but this peoject shows that this little computer was a screamer by the standards of its time!
It is little known that the original assignment of R2D2 was to wander out and reprogram DSKY in the fuselage to a new profile.
Nice! Another Apollo video
Mike doing more Apollo software recovering work as all museums in the world combined, according to Marc, is just astonishing. Great job you're doing with your amazing little rope reader Mike!
And nobody says anything about the rocks between the wooden tabletops?
Love this.
Stay curious!
They are all meteorites. Some pretty big chunks, some pretty rare ones too. We touched a piece of Mars!
Super talented team! It's fun to watch you guys noodle!
Marc, you made a few passing comments on an Apollo fuel cell during a previous visit to Jurvetson’s museum. We’re all waiting for that series to drop…. 😉
Proper cableharness tied with rope instead of tyraps!
Good on ya Mike! Keep up the great work.
Great stuff, guys! 👍
Thanks for sharing.
Excellent work, gentlemen!
Mike is a legend!
Great video, I had no idea the AGC was used as a test bed for early experiments in digital fly by wire. Too bad the Rope memory was not the actual F8 program.
Thanks guys :)
Possibly the coolest desk in the coolest lab ever. The world seems a little less black with minds like these inhabiting it. ❤
Mike is the dogs ding dongs with knowledge AMAZING GUY !!
Apollo 7 CM is in Dallas at Frontiers of Flight. I don't know if it still has it's AGC in it or not... might be an idea to contact them and see about getting access.
FBW is also significant in the weight reduction for the aircraft.
I love all you videos!! Especially this series! Have you all come down to the Huntsville Space and Rocket center? I was just there and there is an AGC there and other Apollo era electronics.
This is fantastic
Last month I was at the MIT museum in Boston...they have some of those Apollo or maybe Skylab computers on display...has he already been able to read them?
Yes. Episode 24, th-cam.com/video/9iavKBdPo4U/w-d-xo.html
I forgot that episode...but at the same time did not realize that is where you were...So cool that it was a fully intact set.
Haha the F-8 gives me so many Boeing YF-23 hurf durf vibes :) Always did love the crusader tho.
@26:15 Blinkenlights! It needs moar blinkenlights!
you guys are awesome. Lets go get snoopy!
Somebody convinces Elon to go get it for us!
@@CuriousMarc they should also go get hubble. either repair it and resend it or put it in a museum. i personally think they should put it in a museum because hubble 2.0 and so on are already being drawn up