Aiming for the Moon: the engineering challenge of Apollo

In retrospect, the Apollo lunar programme is recognised as a political imperative, designed to illustrate American superiority in the face of Soviet competition. It was, nevertheless, also a triumph of technology over seemingly insurmountable challenges. The developments in the many aspects of engineering required to meet those challenges stand, even today, as a testament to mankind's inventiveness and perseverance. The Apollo 17 mission ended this historic first phase of manned planetary exploration in December 1972, but the legacy of the Apollo programme remains-in science, technology and culture-even 30 years on. This paper describes the guidance, navigation and control, the power subsystem, learning from mistakes, and the problems encountered by Apollo 13.