I don't know too much about Zuse but from what I do know he was far ahead of his time / environment.
From my understanding the way his ideas surrounding computer design developed was dependent on the limitations of German resources during the war. As such Zuse was focused on mechanical designs while others in the rest of the world focused more on electromechanical dominated designs.
The end result is that Zuse spent a lot of time going in different directions after the war, developing things that seemed to be curiosities at the time but may end up being critical in space exploration.
From my understanding the way his ideas surrounding computer design developed was dependent on the limitations of German resources during the war. As such Zuse was focused on mechanical designs while others in the rest of the world focused more on electromechanical dominated designs.
The end result is that Zuse spent a lot of time going in different directions after the war, developing things that seemed to be curiosities at the time but may end up being critical in space exploration.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odwgpKRnWM8
https://www.iaarc.org/publications/proceedings_of_the_27th_i...
http://zuse.zib.de/assemblyLineSelfReplicatingSystems