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: Mission types
Spacecraft computer program status for AS-501
This memorandum is to give my impression of what went on during the meeting MIT on September 12, 1966, regarding the AS-501/502 spacecraft guidance computer program. Primarily I would like to describe the status of this program as we see it now….
Apollo Spacecraft Computer Program Schedule
Since last week I promised to start quoting some delivery dates, here goes. We are currently planning release of the flight programs for rope manufacture as follows:…
Small program change needed in the AS-501/502 AGC program
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.,…
LGC program status for AS-206
We spent a lot of time at MIT last week wrestling with the AS-206 problem. Although in a previous note I expressed some optimism regarding possibility of recovering some of the one month slip MIT draped on us, they have convinced me now that there is really not much chance. As a result we pretty…
Rope manufacture for AS-502
This note is to inform everyone that the AS-502 spacecraft computer program ropes will be made precisely the same as those for AS-501. Specifically, it is MIT assembly Solarium 55. You recall Solarium 54 was our original AS-501 A-release, but it was necessary to make a modification in one of the rope modules to correct…
Why is it everyone who loves radar wears a white hat?
In one of these notes eight or ten months ago, I commented that it seems to me the Apollo command module really does not have an operational rendezvous capability. In response to that, I was told to “think positive” and that’s what I’m doing for main line Apollo. However, it would be unfortunate if we…
Why does the AAP command module need a sextant?
Use of horizon scanners for AAP earth orbital missions would considerably reduce the crew’s workload and would eliminate the operational constraint of only being able to align the platform when the spacecraft is in darkness. I realize the use of horizon scanners has already been suggested and is being investigated….
AAP platform should be torqued to local horizontal
In thinking about it a little more, I guess I should have pointed out in the last of these little notes that I’m assuming if we use horizon scanners, we will go ahead and torque the platform at orbit rate. This, of course, will require a certain amount of modification in some of the spacecraft…
Progress Report – RTCC program development reduction – Review of requirements for the AS-502 mission
On February 17th we held a meeting in our continuing effort to reduce the program development demands on the Real Time Computing Complex. In this instance, a group of FCD, FSB and MPAD people reviewed requested modifications to the AS-501 RTCC program in preparation for the AS-502 mission. I could briefly summarize the results by…