In the course of development of the AS-206 computer program at MIT, a coding error was discovered which was immediately recognized as being common to the AS-204 and AS-501/502 programs. It is a scaling error, if you know what that means, which imposes the operational constraint of not operating one of the integration programs (i.e.,…
Category: Earth orbit
Rendezvous maneuver targeting for guidance system backup
During the “D/E” Rendezvous Mission Techniques meeting of April 15, we spent a lot of time discussing the data transmitted from the ground to the spacecraft involving the CSI and CDH maneuvers. This discussion, of course, centered on how the data should be used and led to a tentative conclusion regarding the backup of these…
Apollo Mission Techniques Documentation Schedule
Here is another Mission Techniques Documentation Schedule, since the last one is three months old and barely reflects real life any more. The Lunar Orbit Activities Document will almost certainly have to be updated to reflect whatever we learn on the F mission. A June 30 release date for that update will be kinda late,…
Analysis of LM rendezvous navigation is needed
This memorandum is just a reminder for a couple of action items I discussed with you coming from the lunar landing GSOP review August 17. I think it is very important that you really get on with analyzing the performance of the rendezvous navigation in the LM using the radar. Two items you should specifically…
“C” Rendezvous W-Matrix
This memorandum is to inform everyone in writing that MIT has now agreed with MPAD that it is acceptable to use the same values of the W-Matrix when reinitializing (after three marks of the last batch of marks between NSR and PTI) as are used initially. That is, it is not necessary for the crew…
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…
D Rendezvous Mission Techniques
On October 4 we met to review a draft of the D Rendezvous Mission Techniques. Although we spent the entire day we didn’t get past page 3 and so it is obvious we are going to have to beef up our effort in order to get all this cleaned up. In fact, I am going…
Prelaunch DAP initialization
During our review of the lunar landing GSOP’s, the question of prelaunch DAP initialization was brought up. As far as I can see, there is no use for the DAP until after TLI, isn’t that right? For example, the contingency orbit insertion maneuver does not use the DAP nor does CSM guidance of the S-IVB….
“D” Rendezvous
A great many things were discussed and resolved at the July 22 “D” Rendezvous Mission Techniques meeting. They will all be fully recorded in the minutes. There were three items, however, I would like to call particular attention to at this time by this memo….
D Maneuver Monitoring Mission Techniques
On November 4 we had our first-and-last D Maneuver Monitoring Mission Techniques meeting. In addition to all interested MSC organizations, it was attended by MIT, NR, TRW, and GAEC. We spent the day going through all of the SPS maneuvers both docked and undocked, except for those associated with the rendezvous and the docked DPS…