Computers

Could 60s/70s Technology have made it to the moon?  Did they have good enough computers and stuff?

Oh, the arrogance of the 21st century! It's true that computing technology of the time was really primitive compared to that of today, but a couple of things have to be considered.

• NASA was at the cutting edge of technology, and if they didn't have it they could buy it. What they had available to them was well in advance of anything else around at the time.
• It doesn't take much computational power to plot a course to the moon. Ok, maybe you or we couldn't do it, but we're talking Newtonian physics here that can be done on the back of an envelope by any physicists worth their salt.

One of the most commonly quoted 'facts' quoted about 60s technology is that "the modern washing machine has more computational power than the first lander."   This is a questionable fact, but it hardly matters.  It's amazing what you can achieve with primitive computers if you're not worried about fancy user interfaces.    Also, most of what had to be computed in the Apollo missions could be done on Earth and radioed up.   Everything didn't have to be carried on board.

But think of all the modern computing power you need for a flight simulator, and that's not even the real thing!

All the computing power you need in flight simulation programmes you can now buy for your computer is needed to generate the realistic surroundings.  Very little is needed for the actual flying controls.   The Apollo missions didn't need to generate pretty surroundings on a screen, they had the real thing!