TRW Systems released the AS-207/208 Preliminary Spacecraft Reference Trajectory during the first week of May. This report was put together on a compressed schedule, starting from rather hastily defined mission requirements. As a result, there are a number of things about it which were recognized as being in error even before release; however, since we…
Category: Contingency plans
Apollo rendezvous guidance computer program options
The purpose of this memorandum is to inform you of two special features of the Apollo spacecraft rendezvous guidance computer programs you may not be aware of since we just added them to the system….
LEM radar angle bias correction
As you know, the rendezvous orbit navigation process involves updating the spacecraft state vector based on the spacecraft radar data. However, the radar apparently has unacceptably large angular bias errors for some reason. Instead of fixing the damn radar, someone decided to include in the LEM spacecraft computer program the capability of computing these radar…
Rendezvous terminal phase guidance program in the Apollo spacecraft computer
On July 7, 1966, a team of MSC and MIT “experts in rendezvous” (including Paul Kramer, Ed Lineberry, John Dablen, and Norm Sears) met at MIT to discuss and review the preliminary Guidance System Operation Plan (GSOP)which MIT has unofficially distributed, covering the terminal phase and External ΔV programs for the AS-207/208 mission. This meeting…
Status of the lunar module “quick return” guidance capability
This note is in response to your query regarding the “quick return” capability being provided in the lunar module (LM) for aborts during the lunar descent phase. As you recall, I reported deletion of a program in the LM computer for generating coefficients to be used in an abort polynomial to retarget the LM powered…
LGC computer requirements to provide DPS backup of SPS
During our discussion at MIT last week, the question came up as to whether it is necessary to have trajectory integration techniques in the LCG for the trans-earth phase of the mission as well as the lunar phase. The argument is that if we are serious about using the LM descent propulsion system to back…
More on Program Development
On October 5th, we had the second of our weekly all day program development plan meetings at MIT. Most of our attention was given to the open items on the AS-278 program which I will discuss later, but first I would like to pass on some general comments regarding the work at MIT. Based on…
AGC program status for AS-278
I guess enough things have happened affecting the status of the programs for the AS-278 mission that I ought to issue another status report. According to MIT, work is progressing along basically on schedule. The major effort is currently in Ed Copps’ area where coding of the program is going on which should be completed…
Procedures needed for the AS-503 TLI maneuver
This note is to back up our telephone conversation (2/5/67) in which I requested you to prepare our recommendation as to how the AGC should be used during the simulated translunar injection maneuver on AS-503. It’s certain the crew will want to monitor the progress of this large SIVB maneuver, even though it’s controlled by…
No special spacecraft computer programs are to be developed for AS-208B and AS-503
The decision has bean made by the Apollo Program Manager that unique computer programs need not be developed for missions AS-208B (LM) and AS-503 (CM). This decision was brought about due to concern that effort on these programs would affect development of the main line programs. It is certainly consistent with numerous other actions taken…