A decision was made yesterday which I am sure will make a lot of people happy. ASPO has finally decided to equip the LM-4 with a digital uplink. Obviously, the associated computer programs must be added to the AS-504 LM program. I assume that these are the same as those developed for AS-208 and should…
Category: Apollo 10
Spacecraft computer program names
I used to think MIT was a little odd when it came to selecting names for the spacecraft computer programs with all that weird preoccupation with the sun. But now I see they were right all the time and the rest of the world is nuts – let’s name the missions sequentially as they lift…
AGS accelerometers may not work.
Apparently, there is a basic problem in the LM Abort Guidance System (AGS). Although it is not widely known, there is a rumor the accelerometers do not work and it is highly likely G&C Division will elect to procure the AGS accelerometers from another source. Since it is too late to obtain and incorporate them…
Mission Techniques Documentation Schedule
Some people have asked me for a schedule of when the various Mission Techniques books will be coming out. I can’t remember who they all were so I’m sending it to everyone. I’ll update it in a couple of months….
Results of September 17 Apollo Spacecraft Software Configuration Control Board (ASSCCB) meeting
The first three hours of this marathon meeting were devoted to implementation of the descent program in LUMINARY. The currently approved plan is to implement the one-phase descent scheme proposed by Floyd Bennett and his merry crew. However, MIT has been directed to implement it in such a way that it would be possible to…
F Rendezvous Mission Techniques
We had our first F Rendezvous Mission Techniques meeting on November 12. We went through the whole thing rather smoothly with very few open items, probably due to all the past work on D and G. Obviously it is a much simpler exercise than the D rendezvous. This memo is to record a few of…
Proposal to add something nice to the F mission
If it makes sense, I would like to start a campaign to add some actual powered descent into the F mission with an abort about 300 seconds after PDI or whenever it is that the DPS can return the LM to the desired orbit. Could you people please give me a list of the benefits…
F Mission Techniques – LM Checkout
On December 6 we had our first F Mission Techniques meeting dealing with pre-DOI activity. It resulted in a lot of things I never expected, since I thought the timeline and procedures for LM checkout and CSM landing site tracking were pretty well organized and acceptable with just minor tune-up. At this meeting we really…
Some decisions regarding lunar landmark tracking on the F and G missions
We had an Ad Hoc Mission Techniques meeting on January 9 to talk over lunar landmark tracking. In particular, we wanted to discuss what we thought had been learned from the C’ mission and what we want to do on the F and G missions. This memo is to outline all that briefly. The specific…
Operations required for communication loss on F and G are sure better than on C’
I think we have pretty well established how to handle a communication loss situation on the F and G missions. In effect, we have defined which Block data must be sent and what onboard cis-lunar navigation needs to be carried out. In both cases, of course, it is possible to cut back substantially from the…