Apollo spacecraft premodulation processor teardown

kens wrote: post #4

belter wrote: post #3

Quoted post unavailable.

If you prefer blog format to Twitter: https://www.righto.com/2022/05/talking-with-moon-inside-apol... Previous HN comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31368713

Much better. Thanks!

Re: Apollo spacecraft premodulation processor teardown

#6

Post by WalterGR » Sun, May 15, 2022, 6:15 PM UTC

This submission includes a comment by the author inviting questions:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31368713

Talking with the Moon: Inside Apollo's premodulation processor (righto.com)

98 points by picture 2 days ago | 24 comments

Edit: Strange. I made this comment yesterday. So that suggests this got reposted via the second-chance queue or whatever it's called.

Re: Apollo spacecraft premodulation processor teardown

#7

Post by marcodiego » Sun, May 15, 2022, 6:41 PM UTC

Why no PCB?

Re: Apollo spacecraft premodulation processor teardown

#8

Post by kens » Sun, May 15, 2022, 7:44 PM UTC

marcodiego wrote: post #7

Why no PCB?

They had printed circuit boards back then but point-to-point wiring was very popular.

Re: Apollo spacecraft premodulation processor teardown

#9

Post by merlyn » Mon, May 16, 2022, 5:00 AM UTC

kens wrote: post #8

marcodiego wrote: post #7

Why no PCB?

They had printed circuit boards back then but point-to-point wiring was very popular.

Especially to be hardened for space flight.

Re: Apollo spacecraft premodulation processor teardown

#10

Post by sizzzzlerz » Mon, May 16, 2022, 5:12 PM UTC

marcodiego wrote: post #7

Why no PCB?

I think the fear was that subjecting a PCB to the vibrational stresses imposed during launch could possibly crack traces or solder joints. Even with P2P, they spotwelded where they could. Whatever the reasons, the equipment proved to be reliable. I don't think there was a single comms failure across the entire program.