Actually, the lunar descents were all on autopilot until fairly close to the surface. And even when the astronauts took "manual" control, the LEM was still fly-by-wire, like a lot of modern aircraft: the guidance computer was reading the movements of the joysticks and translating that into thruster settings. (Pulling the joysticks "hard over" would bypass the computers, but that was considered an emergency measure only.)
The LEM software was supposed to be capable of a fully automatic landing, but none of the astronauts rode it all the way down.
David Mindell's book "Digital Apollo" goes into these systems, and their development, in much detail; the discussion of the LEM user interface is in chapter 8.
The LEM software was supposed to be capable of a fully automatic landing, but none of the astronauts rode it all the way down.
David Mindell's book "Digital Apollo" goes into these systems, and their development, in much detail; the discussion of the LEM user interface is in chapter 8.