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…
Category: Lunar orbit insertion
Program Development Plans are coming!!
September 29th shall probably go down in history, at least in my diary, as the day of a major breakthrough at MIT. On that date we had an all day meeting attended by all key MIT management personnel involved in spacecraft computer program development. I expect it to be the first of similar weekly sessions…
Crew monitoring of the LOI maneuver
On August 3 we had an informal meeting to talk about crew monitoring of the Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) maneuver. The subject came up in connection with Jim McDivitt’s preparation for the STAC presentation. I’m writing this note because we tentatively agreed on some fairly basic points with regard to how we might use the…
Use of DPS for lunar mission aborts
The other day Carl Huss and some of the flight Analysis Branch people gave an internal briefing on Apollo aborting procedures for the lunar landing mission starting with the translunar injection (TLI) maneuver. One thing that impressed me was the large number of situations in which dependence is given to using the Descent Propulsion System…
Goodies affecting the RTCC gleaned from the 504 GSOP meeting
I am writing this memorandum to you in your position as RTCC program coordinator for MPAD. During the lunar landing GSOP review of August 16 and 17, I noted a number of items discussed which had some bearing on the RTCC program. I would sure appreciate it if you would look them over and see…
Data Priority meetings schedule
In order to get a little bit more orderly in our conduct of the Trajectory Control Data Priority business, it’s evident that we must schedule meetings on a pre-established, periodic basis. Accordingly, the Ascent and Descent meetings will take place on alternate Tuesday afternoons; Rendezvous meetings will be held of Wednesdays, one mission in the…
It is proposed that we plan a two step LOI maneuver
For the past several months there has been considerable discussion regarding the question of whether we should perform the lunar orbit insertion (LOI) maneuver as a single burn or if it should be made in two steps. This is an important matter to resolve since it has impact on RTCC program development, guidance systems targeting,…
External Delta V for LOI
In a December 15 memo (67-PA-T-121A), I indicated that we were going to perform LOI using two maneuvers. I also stated that pending results of some studies then underway we expected to use the External Delta V guidance mode for these maneuvers rather than Lambert steering. The primary reason for doing this was to make…
Recommendation to retain the Two-Stage Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) Maneuver
This memorandum documents the results of our review of the two-stage LOI maneuver which you requested as a result of a recent OMSF suggestion that it might be preferable to return to a single burn plan. Participation in this review involved all operational elements of MSC concerned in this matter. The conclusions are unanimous….
C’ Mission Techniques
Attached are a list of ground rules and working agreements I compiled from my notes taken at the September 13 and 14 Mission Techniques meetings and the September 20 Lunar Abort meeting, all on the C’ mission. This list is far from complete. Basically, these items are only the changes and additions to the material…