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build your own lunar lander
(lemmy.ml)
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this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2023
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Where you need to be pointed, how fast you're going relative to something else, how long your burn needs to be, and when it needs to be. You don't need much "computer" to figure that out.
You can totally navigate space with just a pencil, paper, a slide rule, and a sextant. Like some kinda ~~steakpunk~~ steampunk space pirate.
Let's make steakpunk a thing please.
There was a sextant on the early orbital and the lunar missions.
Buzz aldrin wrote a paper on navigating in space using a sextant and paper. If I remember right, the analog tools were brought along in case the computers failed, as the return capsules needed a specific reentry angle and velocity, or they’d either burn up in the atmosphere or bounce off into space.