To the moon

                                  

It's 2021, technology continues to evolve and grow at an exponential rate, and still, to this day, it never ceases to amaze me the fact that humanity landed on the moon 52 years ago. If you come to think about, it could possibly be one of the biggest feats to ever be accomplished in our history, especially when you take into consideration the technology that scientists had at their disposal during this time. While I was watching the documentary Moon Machines last Friday, I only became more impressed with how it was done. What they did back then was the product of the world's brightest and most clever minds getting together and setting a common goal. This is what stuck out for me the most, the fact that it was such a collaborative effort, involving all kinds of specialists and scientists, providing valuable information form diverse fields.

It also is proof that any great system is built gradually, with rigurous and extensive testing of each of its components. Starting with the navigation system, personally I think that the success of this test in the military plane was the spark of hope that ignited the rest of the operation. When they realized how powerful was the system that the MIT developed, was when they knew that getting to the moon was  no longer a dream or fantasy, but something within their reach. But as many other systems, they could not rely solely on the success of one particular component or machine, they needed some sense of control over the cruise, which is where the radio signals came in to play. It's a perfect example of excellence in our industry, robustness, reliability, backups, optimization of the resources and full on team work. Although it wasn't perfect, seeing this documentary and the whole process of getting to the moon should serve as example and guide for anyone looking to start a project, even the smallest one.