Apollo Rope Memory Modules (Part 1 - Introduction)

This is the first video in a series where I demonstrate how I managed to extract the software from the Rope Memory modules of the long lost Apollo Guidance Computer used in Flight AS-202.

[catd]

Thank you for conserving this very important relic of world history.

[adiero]

Thank you so much for this. I watched these flights as a boy. In the 9 minutes the duration, I took about 6 breaths. There are so few words!

[drawingboard]

I honestly can not begin to tell you how amazing you are. This is probably the most impressive thing I've ever seen. You should be very proud of yourself.

[potgieterhuis]

Very Very nice Francoise! you have done incredible work!

I actually watched the documentary you used in your cutscenes a couple of weeks ago, and now to think those actual same parts I saw there are on South African soil! and actually being read by South African gives me goose bumps!

You saved history from the scrap heap! and for that, we can all be grateful, although not everybody may realise it. its an incredible piece of technological history you have there and it amazes me that it ended up on the scrap heap and no copies were kept... but did NASA not also reuse the tapes containing the original recording of the moon landing as well, meaning there is no original NASA copy of that historical event? a pity how history can be thrown on the scrap heap...

Not even to think of what led to the creation of that computer... Kennedy and his speech about "a man on the moon before this decade is out" his tragic death. then there is the whole cold war backdrop of the space race against the USSR, ICBM's and all the other history from those (in my mind at least) probably one of the most interesting chapters in military, political, technological and scientifical history

From a big history fan and proud fellow South African, thank you so very very much for your time and effort and very well done...

May this history (and your part in preserving it) never be forgotten again

Regards

[Fizz-Pop]

I am doubly amazed. I am amazed that people know how to extract data or make things to extract data from something so old. And I am also amazed that a piece of history like that would just be sent to a scrap heap. I get that old tech is not useful..but when it was a part of humans getting into space, you would think that it would be put into a museum or something.

[dylanmeadon]

This is something really special! Well done :)

[esteban]

*Very interesting man! This is pure gold!*
*greatings from mexico!*

[youtubasoarus]

This is absolutely incredible! Wild find. I am absolutely flabbergasted that such a thing could be not only found, but READ in this time. O____O By the accent i'd imagine you're South African?

[ronking]

Thank you for this. Engineers of the time were pragmatic and focused on what they were doing. Thoughts of saving such mundane information were the furthest from their minds. So much amazing tech has been lost. Thanks to wonderful people like you, the rest of us get to enjoy these little nuggets of the past. Kudos and thank you. NASA should give you a special commendation, at the least.

[Herebuss]

I believe the first integrated circuits went into space in 1965, as part of cosmic ray instruments that were flown on four interplanetary spacecraft. At the time NASA was strongly against using them for risk of failure associated with cosmic radiation.

[mikeyoung]

Amazing. I'm glad this popped up on my recommended instead usual copied stuff. Only took a year +.

[sonofeloah]

There was a company of that same time period that developed specialized digital testing equipment specifically for testing these memory cores. They were called Non Linier Systems out of Del Mar, California. Not sure if their testing equipment had the ability to "read" any data stored on those or not, but would be worth researching.

[MEB]

Oh my god! Really, really no can’t be! I’m actually shaking thinking about this. This is a holly grail. Every textbook on computer science history now has to be rewritten. YOU DID CONTACT NASA YES! And what did they say. Of course you know they still legally own them. If you haven’t called please do so. This is history we should all have! Thank you thank you! Now hardware? Ot even the manuals for the hardware survived. You gotta contact MIT OH HELL IM GOING TO. I have a good friend who’s father worked for North American on the CM! Thank you well I’m not gonna sleep

[tempus_fugit]

Fantastic find. Thank you for your efforts. What are some of the specifics of what the software contained? Was it intelligible? Do we have documentation on the software so that it can be compared? Thank you

[magnetstoo]

CuriousMarc has AGC -Apollo computer-search Apollo AGC restoration
Fran Blanche has Saturn V -LVDC- or Launch Vehicle Digital Computer circuit
boards

[peterlamont]

Hey also, shouldn't this nameless gentlemen be named in recognition of his great deed?! This is history in the making right here!!!! A thousand years from now, this will be talked about...

[jackpret]

Noutoenou!
Netjiese werk!
Daar is "collectors" in Amerika wat die goed soek.

[jan]

Very cool! Is the raw data actually available somewhere?

[philorkill]

Thank you for sharing this! Maybe you want to get in touch with Fran Blanche which is the authority on the DSKY here on youtube! Would be great if you could join forces!

[fakshen]

What kind of device was making the clacking sound? Is there a mechanical component to this?