We spent the entire May 8 Ascent Data Priority meeting discussing mission techniques associated with aborts from powered descent on a lunar landing mission. This discussion led to some pretty simple procedures which are outlined in this memo. They are based on some assumptions which I’ve also listed below. If you feel that they are…
Category: G
Some decisions regarding lunar landmark tracking on the F and G missions
We had an Ad Hoc Mission Techniques meeting on January 9 to talk over lunar landmark tracking. In particular, we wanted to discuss what we thought had been learned from the C’ mission and what we want to do on the F and G missions. This memo is to outline all that briefly. The specific…
July 9 and July 24 “G” Rendezvous Mission Techniques meetings
During the July 9 and July 24 “G” Rendezvous Mission Techniques meetings we have developed preliminary intra-vehicular rendezvous navigation sighting schedules. Crew work load estimates currently in use for the “D” mission rendezvous are included. These tracking schedules are very important since they have a predominating influence on almost everything else. For example, from these…
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…
Lunar Ascent preparation
At the July 3 Lunar Ascent Mission Techniques meeting we cleaned up the last of the main open items for the phase of the lunar landing mission from LM touchdown to liftoff. We are now ready to go to press for that part of the mission and will hold a world-wide review of it before…
First 2 hours on the moon is a countdown to launch – simulated or real thing.
Those who participated in the STAC presentation already know this, but perhaps some of you, like me, had not heard. It is currently proposed that on the lunar landing mission the first two hours on the lunar surface will be devoted to spacecraft systems checks and launch preparations which, for all practical purposes, simulates the…
F Mission Techniques – LM Checkout
On December 6 we had our first F Mission Techniques meeting dealing with pre-DOI activity. It resulted in a lot of things I never expected, since I thought the timeline and procedures for LM checkout and CSM landing site tracking were pretty well organized and acceptable with just minor tune-up. At this meeting we really…
Some G Mission Techniques action items
This memo is just a list of action items assigned to MPAD and/or MIT which I remember coming from our recent G descent/descent abort meetings. In addition to reminding those responsible for them, they serve as some sort of indication of what’s going on in this business which you might find interesting….
VHF ranging by CSM for ascent monitoring
Attention everyone!! As far as I can tell, everyone wants to get that VHF ranging device on the CM and there’s a big effort going on right now to put together the proposal and justification for it. Most attention to date has been given to its use for rendezvous. It is obvious that it should…
Some significant LUMINARY program changes you should know about
I really blew it at the June 5 Apollo Spacecraft Software Configuration Control Board meeting. Although dozens of rather minor changes were approved, the one I was most concerned about wasn’t even discussed and I completely forgot it. This memo is to inform you that we are now desperately trying to include a capability in…