The Apollo 11 Guidance Computer, used during NASA’s 1969 moon mission, relied on a revolutionary form of memory called core rope memory. Unlike modern digital storage, this system stored data physically: wires were meticulously hand-woven through or around tiny magnetic cores. A wire threaded through a core represented a binary 1; a wire that bypassed it represented a 0. The result was a permanent, durable memory system that could withstand the rigors of spaceflight.
Each module could store up to 72 kilobytes of data and took weeks to assemble by skilled female technicians, often referred to as “Little Old Ladies,” though many were young women working in textile-based industries. Despite its modest size by today’s standards, core rope memory was incredibly reliable, compact, and radiation-resistant—critical for guiding astronauts to the Moon and back.