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The Moon landings

Contrary to urban myth, NASA did use the
metric system for the Apollo Moon
landings. SI units were used for arguably
the most critical part of the missions –
the calculations that were carried out by
the Lunar Module’s onboard Apollo
Guidance Computer (AGC) during the
computer-controlled phases of the
spacecraft’s descent to the surface of the
Moon, and for the journey of the Ascent
stage of the craft during its return to
lunar orbit, where it would rendezvous
with the Command and Service Module
(CSM).

Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) and DSKY (Display

and Keyboard)

As is the case in the UK with road signage,

the use of metric units in the USA is often
hidden from public view. The Apollo
Guidance Computer is a good example of
this. The computer display readouts were
in units of feet, feet per second, and
nautical miles – units that the Apollo
astronauts, who had mostly trained as jet
pilots, would have been accustomed to
using. Internally, however, the
computer’s software used SI units for all
powered-flight navigation and guidance
calculations, and values such as altitude
and altitude rate were only converted to
imperial units when they needed to be
shown on the computer’s display.

Apollo Guidance Computer – use of

measurement units

Quantity Internal Displayed

feet,
distance metres nautical
miles

centisecond minutes,
time
s seconds

altitude metres feet

altitude metres per feet per

rate centisecond second

metres per
acceleratio
centisecond
n
squared

mass kilograms

kilograms
fuel burn
per
rate
centisecond

thrust newtons

newton
impulse centisecond
s

newton
momentum centisecond
s

Source code for the Apollo Guidance

Computer program has been released
into the public domain. The following
extracts highlight examples of the use of
SI units in the software.

Source code extracts from Luminary 1A build 099

Physics equations – SI
versus imperial

NASA’s mathematicians used Newton’s

laws of motion in their space flight
calculations. To demonstrate why using
SI units for such calculations is simpler
and clearer than using imperial units, it is
a useful exercise to take Newton’s second
law as an example to compare the
di!erences.

Newton’s second law of motion states

that the rate of change of momentum of a
body is directly proportional to the force
applied, and this change in momentum
takes place in the direction of the applied
force. This can be expressed in the
following equation:

force is proportional to mass × acceleration

or

where k is the proportionality constant

Using SI units

In the International System of Units (SI),

the newton (symbol N) is the unit of
force. It is a coherent derived unit, which
means that it is defined from SI base
units such that the proportionality
constant is one. Therefore, using SI units,
the above equation can be simplified as:

force = mass × acceleration

— A force of 1 newton on a mass of

1 kilogram produces an acceleration of
1 metre per second squared.

Using SI units, calculations involving

Newton’s second law are straight
forward. e.g. The force required to
accelerate a 5 000 kg spacecraft at 3 m/s2
is 15 kN.

Using imperial units

In contrast to SI, the use of imperial units

is cumbersome and confusing. Imperial
generally has more than one unit for a
given quantity, so before any calculation
can be done, a choice of units has to be
made (working with miles, yards, feet
and inches at the same time is not even a
consideration here). Conventionally feet,
pounds and seconds would be used. To
further complicate matters, the names
used for imperial units of force and mass
are the same*. For physics calculations,
their use has to be explicitly stated as
pound-force (lbf) and pound-mass (lbm).
The definition of the pound-force also
has the e!ect of obfuscating the
di!erence between mass and weight (a
force).

— One pound-force is defined as the

force due to gravity acting on a mass of
one pound at sea level on Earth.

For Newton’s second law, if units of

pounds and feet are used in the equation
F = k m a, the proportionality constant k
does not equal one. The units pound-
force, pound-mass, and foot per second
squared do not form a coherent system.
This is a crucial di!erence from SI. In
order to complete the calculation, the
value of the proportionality constant
needs to be known. It also means that,
using imperial units, two multiplication
operations are needed to perform the
same task that needs only one
multiplication using SI units.

In what amounts to an admission that

imperial units are unfit for purpose, there
is an alternative approach that involves
defining novel units for either mass or
force, such that the proportionality
constant k is equal to one. For mass there
is the slug, and for force there is the
poundal. Their use is mutually exclusive,
and applicable only when acceleration is
defined in units of ft/s2.

— A slug is defined as the mass that is

accelerated by 1 ft/s2 when a force of
1 pound (lbf) is exerted on it.

1 slug = 14.593903 kg

— A poundal is defined as the force

necessary to accelerate a mass of
1 pound (lbm) at 1 ft/s2.

1 poundal = 0.138254954376 N exactly.

Using the first of these methods, to

calculate the force required to impart a
certain acceleration to a spacecraft, it
would be necessary to know the
spacecraft’s mass in slugs, a unit that has
never been in general use**.

1960s computer technology

The Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC)

was one of the first computers to use
integrated circuits. In the 1960s it was the
state-of-the-art. Its performance was
comparable to a first generation home
computer from the late 1970s.

By choosing to use SI, NASA’s software

engineers removed the need for the extra
multiplication calculations that working
with imperial units would have entailed.
The consequent reduction in the number
of mathematical operations required by
the navigation and guidance programs
contributed to the task of making the
most e$cient use of the onboard
computer’s limited processing power and
memory capacity.

*It makes no sense for di!erent units in a

measurement system to share the same unit name.

However, imperial has more than one instance of

this confusing practice. For mass and force, there is

the pound; and for mass, force and volume, there is

the ounce. When used for volume, the ounce (or

fluid ounce) also has a di!erent magnitude

depending on whether it is of the US or imperial

variety.

**Slugs have only ever been used for physics

calculations involving obsolete imperial units. For

better or worse, in 1969 we never got to see the

news headline, “A spaceship of more than 1000 slugs

has landed on the Moon“. Similarly, fruit and

vegetables have never been authorised for sale by

the slug (any requirement for the word slugs to

appear on the contents label of a packet of lettuce

would probably have made that a non-starter).

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