During our March 27 Lunar Surface Mission Techniques meeting I think we finally settled how we think the PGNCS should be operated. How many times have I said that before? This memo is to broadcast a few new items that might be of general interest….
Category: G
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…
CSM rendezvous navigation works fine using just VHF ranging
I made an announcement during the F Operations Review which was absolutely flat-out wrong. This memo is to correct that statement and/or just to make sure you know what capability really exists in the CSM for rendezvous navigation….
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:…
G mission lunar descent is uphill – all the way
Just in case you didn’t know, I thought I would send you this note about some nominal G mission landing site characteristics which I thought were kind of interesting. First of all, apparently this landing site (2-P-6) is about 9,000 feet lower than the mean lunar radius. The significance of this, of course, is that…
CSI and CDH back into the AGS – maybe
Apparently the TRW AGS people have done a good job of putting the new rendezvous radar navigation filter into that dinky computer. In fact, they now estimate a surplus of some 80 words….
Let’s drop one of the lunar surface RR tests
During our review of the G Mission Lunar Surface Mission Techniques Document on April 10, we came to a conclusion which may interest you. It deals with the need, or really lack of need, for the crew to do some things that are in the current flight plan. Specifically, in the crew LM timeline, we…
Lunar Rendezvous Mission Techniques
On May 28 we finally kicked off the Lunar Rendezvous Mission Techniques business. Because of the imminence of missions “D” and “E”, we started on those first some months ago. Now I wish we hadn’t because they are so darned complicated. I have a feeling the lunar rendezvous can be finished up quicker than they…
F/G Mirror Image Targeting shall use a three-minute delay
As you know, we have established as a standard procedure during Apollo rendezvous having CSM backup LM maneuvers in order to retain the nominal relative motion during this critical mission phase. On the D mission these “mirror image” CSM maneuvers are targeted with TIG delayed one minute after the LM TIG. One minute was chosen…
Lunar rendezvous shaping up
On June 26 we took another wack at the “G” Rendezvous Mission Techniques. I think we now have most of the basic things squared away so that we can get into the detail with some confidence. The most significant decisions were:…