On June 9 we had our final Mission Techniques meeting on CSM Rescue. I am pleased to report that this stuff appears to be in very good shape. After much hard work by many people, the CSM rescue rendezvous plans shake down to only two basic profiles. Each of these has minor modifications to account…
Category: H
LM IMU drift checks prior to descent for Apollo 13 and up
We are making some fairly substantial changes to the way we are aligning and checking the drift of the LM IMU before descent on the Apollo 13 mission. Just for the record I would like to document what it is we are doing and why….
We don’t have to change LUMINARY much for point landing but there’s gold in them hills!
On September 12 we had a spacecraft computer program requirements meeting for Apollo 13. We called it because there were a lot of proposals floating around which had been advertised as “needed for point landing.” On the other hand, these programs must be released for rope manufacture on about November 15 and so there obviously…
Important LM computer program change for Apollo 13 descent
There were some things about the terminal descent on the last mission that kind of spooked a lot of people. One of the things suggested as a result of this was to add a capability to the LM guidance and control system which would assist the crew during the last 100 feet or so of…
Reentry from lunar missions
On January 12 a group of Flight Crew, Flight Control and Mission Planning guys got together to talk about the lunar reentry and some rather interesting things came out which I am recording here for my records and your amusement….
It is proposed that we plan a two step LOI maneuver
For the past several months there has been considerable discussion regarding the question of whether we should perform the lunar orbit insertion (LOI) maneuver as a single burn or if it should be made in two steps. This is an important matter to resolve since it has impact on RTCC program development, guidance systems targeting,…
LM high-bit rate telemetry data is not mandatory
A somewhat controversial mission rule is on the books for the Apollo 12 flight dealing with LM high-bit rate data. Specifically, it indicates that it is all right to proceed with the mission (e.g., undocking, DOI, PDI, etc.) in the absence of LM high-bit rate data with an implied provision that some sort of procedures…
Apollo 12 Mission Techniques
On September 15 and 16 we had the second (and last) Mission Techniques meeting for Apollo 12. It was advertised to be a “catchall” and it was. It all went smoothly enough considering how many people were there – the place was stuffed (even the projection room!) – and the exhaustion and emotion these things…
Descent, Lunar Surface, and Ascent Mission Techniques with the H crew
On May 20 and 21 we reviewed Descent, Lunar Surface, and Ascent Mission Techniques with the H crew (Pete Conrad and co.). This get together had two major objectives – to tell the H crew how we think these things should be done and conversely, for the first time to get a flight crew reaction…
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…