I am afraid there is a bit of confusion as to what navigation modes are being provided in the AS-503 and AS-504 Apollo spacecraft computer programs. I am sure I have contributed to this confusion myself, and the purpose of this memorandum is to try and clear it all up….
Category: Translunar coast
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…
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…
Spacecraft computer program orbital integration
This is just another little golden nugget for your files….
Flyby solutions in the RTCC Midcourse program will not be absolutely optimum
This memo is to inform you of a simplification in RTCC program requirements I recently approved. As noted below, the capability we are providing appears to be adequate and the cost of the optimization is incompatible with the benefit to be gained. The rest of this memo is lifted almost verbatim from one Bob Ernull…
Transearth midcourse correction philosophy – a major operation break through!
In trying to establish mission techniques for the midcourse correction maneuvers on the way back from the moon, we reached a point beyond which we could not progress without first establishing some sort of maneuver philosophy, like:…
Can some pre-DOI activity be move to pre-LOI?
As you are no doubt aware, the crew timeline just prior to Descent Orbit Insertion (DOI) is terrible. This period of activity has grown almost to the point of being unacceptable. This is due to the extensive LM checkout – particularly that requiring telemetry coverage – which unfortunately conflicts with other activities such as making…
C’ Communication Loss
A lot of work is going into the subject contingency – with respect to:…
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…
Cis-lunar spacecraft navigation for C’
We are still thrashing around trying to figure out what to do with regard to cis-lunar spacecraft navigation for the C’ mission. It is not clear whether a couple of things are really necessary or not. If we could get rid of them, it would simplify things. Unfortunately, we aren’t confident it is safe to…