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goku12
They're referring to the dialogue by Obadiah Stane in Iron man. But it's also appropriate in some sense if you consider how they made the carbon dioxide scrubber in-flight in Apollo 13.
mulmen OP
I understand the reference. It just doesn’t work with the famously well funded and resourced Apollo program.
goku12
I agree that they were well funded. But the designs were complete genius. They were exceptionally clever with the use of rudimentary technologies they had at the time. One of my favorites is how they used an Archimedes spiral in celestial attitude determination. It isn't too farfetched to say that they used scraps to build the program - they just MacGyvered through every challenge they faced.
mulmen OP
They were extremely clever but I strongly object to characterizing the program as “scrappy”.

They were doing beyond bleeding edge stuff with zero compromise. They didn’t settle. They just kept inventing until they had the capability they needed. Then they moved on to making the next impossible thing possible.

The Apollo Guidance Computer used the first integrated circuits. Like, literally the first batches manufactured went into the AGC. 2/3 of the national supply of a brand new technology is not “scraps”.

They went to the absolute limit of what was technologically possible then and is not technologically possible today. I understand that’s the reason for the Iron Man reference but it just doesn’t work here. The 1960s were not the stone age. Apollo was thousands of Tony Starks with the full backing of the United States. Not a couple guys in a cave fighting for their lives.

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