Gimbal lock is a real issue with mechanical gyros, but as joema has explained, that wasn’t the problem on Gemini 8.
Ring laser gyros are indeed immune to the gimbal lock problem, since they don’t actually have any gimbals.
The Gemini 8 case and the so-called “checklist errors” on Apollo 10 and 11 are examples of how modern computers could possibly improve safety. In Gemini and Apollo it was up to the astronauts to set many switches and enter sometimes hundreds of DSKY keyboard commands. There was very little error checking. A wrong switch position could have killed them and in Apollo 10 it nearly did.
With Gemini 8 a modern on-board computer would be constantly monitoring all switch positions and various “talk back” indicators. A stuck thruster would have instantly been identified. Just like some modern fighter planes take control from the pilot to keep from hitting the ground, a modern crewed spacecraft would likely try to auto-stabilize itself or automatically shut down a stuck thruster. In Apollo 10 a modern computer would have likely identified the PNGS/AGS switch position error, or maybe avoided the error through automation.
Hope they removed the gold foil first!!
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Except for being able to say “Man on the Moon” we probably would not send astronauts to the moon for exploration in 3019, IMO.
The comms transit times are short enough to permit near-real time control of an unmanned lander and explorer (and we’ve learned enough from the Mars lander programs to automate landing and semi-autonomous nav).
Landing, looking around for a few hours, grabbing some samples and returning home? Exceot for bragging rights we’d send a robot or three instead of humans.