And even though the greatest “drama” they could rustle up at the end was for a broken switch (”The switch has broken” “So it has” “How did that happen?” “I don’t know” “Let’s ask Houston if it’s on or not” “Okay” “It’s on” How will I switch it off?” “With my handy fountain pen” “That should work”) the programme as a whole really drummed home the message of what an incredible feat the moon landing was.

And, naturally, being of an IT bent, I started idly wondering about the horsepower inside the Apollo 11 and the lander. It’s well documented/alleged that the computer inside the Apollo 11 was roughly similar in power to a calculator, but naturally the reality is so much more complicated. You can compare numbers of transistors, amount of memory, lines of code – but fundamentally you’re comparing peanuts with horses.

So I stopped thinking about it for a while and instead focused on what other more intelligent people had written. And here’s my pick of ten articles:

1. Wikipedia – Apollo Guidance Computer

So you won’t find any friendly comparisons between modern-day computers and the Apollo Guidance Computer, but you will find a strangely compelling and highly technical explanation of how it worked.

2. IT PRO – Man on the Moon: Technology then and now

This leads nicely onto an article written by Benny Har-Even, technology editor of our sister title IT PRO. Through interviews with everyone from current astronauts to the man who led the team that designed the navigation systems for the lunar landing, he looks at how space technology has developed in the past 40 years.

3. Download Squad – How powerful was the Apollo 11 computer?

A more light-hearted look at the similarities between computers (and software) of today and the Apollo 11’s, this includes the tale of when the Apollo 14 crew had to hand-code their flight system due to a bug in the existing code. And it wasn’t even written by Microsoft.

4. Universe Today – Build your own Apollo 11 landing computer

If you have $3,000 to hand and an awful lot of spare time, you too can enjoy runtime error messages by replicating the Apollo 11 landing computer. Joking aside, the landing computer was a phenomenal achievement.

5. PC Pro – A real space oddity arrives at PC Pro

Forget about computers of the past – this one is right here, right now. PC Pro’s own Mike Jennings managed to source a PC designed for space that was rather unlike the Apollo 11’s 30kg beast. This one’s smaller than an apple.

6. National Geographic – Apollo 11 facts

Admittedly this site is a little light on technology, but it still provides a fascinating glimpse into all things Apollo 11 – from myth-busting to photos to a quiz.

7. Wired – 40 years after Apollo 11, NASA maps out the future

With a worldwide recession and our banking system in turmoil, you’d have thought America would have greater priorities than sending people to Mars. But this is still on the cards for the middle of this century, as this interesting Wired article reveals.

8. Wired – the science of Apollo 11

Mr Armstrong and Aldrin didn’t just fly up to that great bit lump of rock, they brought some back for us too. And apparently that’s rather good news: “The moon is a recorder of things that happen in space that you can’t get from Earth,” claims Randy Korotev, a Washington University lunar geochemist.

9. We Choose The Moon

This spectacular Flash-based site takes you through the full Apollo 11 journey, from launch to landing. Amazing stuff.

10. NASA – Moondust and duct tape

Now the official NASA site is full of astonishing images, video and information (and plenty of dull stuff too), but our pick is this bizarre story about the role of duct tape on lunar landings. Believe it or not, it’s a lifesaver.

I’m sure there are dozens if not hundreds of other articles dedicated to this topic (courtesy of Google, you can even download the Apollo 11 guidance equations), so feel free to post your suggestions below.

Will other technological milestones be celebrated in similar ways, I wonder?

Will the 40th anniversary of the internet’s creation be honoured by people bouncing emails off of Tim Berners-Lee’s laptop? Will we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the GSM network by routing SMS messages through Friedhelm Hillebrand’s mobile?

No, probably not.