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I have always wondered: what programming languages were used to go to the moon? I realize there may not be a single answer/language, but it interests me.
How many people worked on the code for these systems? How was it tested?
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HAL/S is a high-level programming language commissioned by NASA in the late 1960s to meet the real-time programming needs of the Agency. At the time, programs used on board spacecraft were either written in assembly languages or in interpreted languages.
NASA has used many different programming languages throughout its history. Even today, different computer programs are used for different applications. For example, HAL / S has been used for many NASA spacecraft, including the Space Shuttle. Today, ground computers use languages such as C ++, Python and MATLAB.
The 1969 Apollo 11 mission (above) was the first to land men on the Moon. Since then, the most obvious advances have been in computing and electronics (especially in reducing size). The Apollo Guidance Computer had RAM of 4KB, a 32KB hard disk.
Answer: Astronomers use a wide range of programming languages to conduct observational and theoretical studies of the universe. Some examples are C, C++, and python. Even fortran is still used in some contexts.
The Apollo Guidance Computer was programmed in assembly language.
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Not a full answer, but a bit more info:
"The on-board Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) was about 1 cubic foot with 2K of 16-bit RAM and 36K of hard-wired core-rope memory with copper wires threaded or not threaded through tiny magnetic cores. The 16-bit words were generally 14 bits of data (or two op-codes), 1 sign bit, and 1 parity bit. The cycle time was 11.7 micro-seconds. Programming was done in assembly language and in an interpretive language, in reverse Polish."
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11.1201-fm.html
Added: the BBC has recently published a wonderful article about the AGC including interviews with the designers, and with the "little old ladies" who wove the "rope core." It doesn't cover how the software was designed, coded or tested, but you'll probably find it interesting all the same!
Additionally, the source code for the main and landing modules can be found here
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