Editing Apollo program (section)

===Science and engineering===
{{further|NASA spin-off technologies}}
[[File:Margaret Hamilton.gif|thumb|[[Margaret Hamilton (scientist)|Margaret Hamilton]] standing next to the navigation software that she and her MIT team produced for the Apollo project]]
The Apollo program has been described as the greatest technological achievement in human history.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Apollo 11 30th Anniversary: Introduction |publisher=NASA History Office |date=1999 |url=https://history.nasa.gov/ap11ann/introduction.htm |access-date=April 26, 2013}}</ref> Apollo stimulated many areas of technology, leading to over 1,800 spinoff products as of 2015, including advances in the development of [[cordless]] power tools, [[Fireproofing|fireproof materials]], [[heart monitors]], [[solar panel]]s, [[digital imaging]], and the use of [[liquid methane]] as fuel.<ref name="January 2005">{{cite web |last=O'Rangers |first=Eleanor A. |date=January 26, 2005 |title=NASA Spin-offs: Bringing Space Down to Earth |url=https://www.space.com/731-nasa-spin-offs-bringing-space-earth.html |access-date=2024-04-23 |website=Space.com}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Benefits from Apollo: Giant Leaps in Technology |url=https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/80660main_ApolloFS.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/80660main_ApolloFS.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |website=NASA}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://spinoff.nasa.gov/search/node |website=NASA Spinoff |publisher=National Aeronautics and Space Administration |title=Search |access-date=April 24, 2024}}</ref> The [[Apollo Guidance Computer|flight computer]] design used in both the lunar and command modules was, along with the [[UGM-27 Polaris|Polaris]] and [[LGM-30 Minuteman|Minuteman]] missile systems, the driving force behind early research into [[integrated circuit]]s (ICs). By 1963, Apollo was using 60 percent of the United States' production of ICs. The crucial difference between the requirements of Apollo and the missile programs was Apollo's much greater need for reliability. While the Navy and Air Force could work around reliability problems by deploying more missiles, the political and financial cost of failure of an Apollo mission was unacceptably high.{{sfn|Mindell|2008|pp=125–131}}

Technologies and techniques required for Apollo were developed by Project Gemini.{{sfn|Brooks|Grimwood|Swenson|1979|pp=181–182, 205–208}} The Apollo project was enabled by NASA's adoption of new advances in [[semiconductor]] [[electronic technology]], including [[metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor]]s (MOSFETs) in the [[Interplanetary Monitoring Platform]] (IMP)<ref>{{cite book |title=Interplanetary Monitoring Platform |date=29 August 1989 |publisher=[[NASA]] |pages=1, 11, 134 |url=https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19800012928.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19800012928.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |access-date=12 August 2019|last1=Butler |first1=P. M. }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=White |first1=H. D. |last2=Lokerson |first2=D. C. |title=The Evolution of IMP Spacecraft Mosfet Data Systems |journal=[[IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science]] |date=1971 |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=233–236 |doi=10.1109/TNS.1971.4325871 |bibcode=1971ITNS...18..233W |issn=0018-9499}}</ref> and [[silicon]] [[integrated circuit]] chips in the [[Apollo Guidance Computer]] (AGC).<ref>{{cite web |title=Apollo Guidance Computer and the First Silicon Chips |url=https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/apollo-guidance-computer-and-first-silicon-chips |website=[[National Air and Space Museum]] |publisher=[[Smithsonian Institution]] |access-date=1 September 2019 |date=14 October 2015}}</ref>