Apollo and the Information Age
I grew up in the age of steam trains, when flying was only for the rich. Only the rich had telephones, too — most people used ‘public phone boxes’ that sat on many street corners. Phone calls had to be booked through ‘operators’, sitting in the telephone exchanges. Sometimes it could take hours, or days, to book a long-distance or overseas phone call.
My life has seen the steam age give way to the electrical age with, first of all, radios then TV and personal computers, and now mobile phones. I’ve seen the screwdriver, the soldering iron and the multimeter give way to silicon chips and ‘modularisation’.
What modularisation means is that, instead of having individual electronic circuits, the circuits are now embedded together in tiny modules, coated in epoxy resins. They can no longer be repaired — only replaced. Skilled technicians are no longer required — replaced by people with fewer skills and minimal training.
The giant computer gave way to the mini- computer, then to the micro-computer and finally to the personal computer (or PC) — each advancement supplying more computing power than the whole computer complex used to get man to the Moon.
Some of the men who had worked on the Apollo missions at Honeysuckle Creek remained in space tracking: John Saxon moved to Tidbinbilla, along with Paul Hutchinson, Mike Dinn and Brian Hale.
My career as a technician had now ended. My new tools of trade were program coding sheets, punched cards and magnetic tape. I’d eventually work, not with spacecraft, but with submarines — although spacecraft and submarines had vastly different roles, they both provide life-support systems for people beyond the surface of Earth.
The close community I had known for so long was gone too. Honeysuckle Creek hadn’t been just a job. It was an unforgettable time of team work, comradeship and achievement. It was over.
WHERE IS THE HONEYSUCKLE CREEK DISH NOW?
The antenna was dismantled and taken to Tidbinbilla Deep Space Tracking Station, where Australian scientists and technicians still help track the spacecraft that penetrate deep into the darkness between the stars.
You can visit Tidbinbilla — it has an excellent visitors’ centre. You can actually see moon rock and spacesuits, as well as kangaroos grazing around the giant antennas!