Some of the decisions and open items that came out of our F/G Mission Techniques meetings in late January are listed in this memo. Basically, I would say that all mission phases aside from the lunar orbit activity are very well understood at this time – primarily as a result of the C’ mission -…
Category: Translunar coast
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…
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…
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…
C’ Spacecraft Navigation Mission Techniques
It appears we have completed basic development of C’ Spacecraft Navigation Mission Techniques both for Cis-Lunar and Lunar Orbit. Documentation of these techniques will be distributed in the near future. No further meetings will be called specifically for their subjects. Whatever open items come up will be handled in our weekly C’ Mission Techniques Reviews,…
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:…
F and G mission cis-lunar and abort plan
On January 8 a gang of us FOD types got together to develop a proposal on how we should use the LM for cis-lunar and lunar orbit aborts. In other words, how should the C’ techniques be modified due to having the LM DPS available to backup or use in place of the SPS. A…
F/G cis-lunar midcourse correction mission techniques
This memo is to document the cis-lunar midcourse correction mission techniques we agreed to January 27 and 28 at the F and G Mission Techniques meetings. The translunar maneuvers are based on the following assumptions and guidelines:…
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…
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…