The first item discussed at this February 18 meeting really involved all Apollo rendezvous, which accounts for the long attendance list. The subject was whether or not to change the orbital travel between Terminal Phase Initiation (TPI) and theoretical braking from 140° to 130°. It was stated that this change would make necessary reworking the…
Year: 1968
Spacecraft computer programs controlling DPS throttling need more changes
On February 14 we had a meeting with everyone at MSC, plus MIT and Grumman, who are interested in the way the spacecraft computer program throttles the Descent Propulsion System (DPS). There has been concern that the throttling programs as currently designed are not adequate for the Descent Orbit Insertion (DOI) maneuver on a lunar…
Landing radar reasonableness
Here is another request for information—this time dealing with landing radar reasonableness. The basic question is how well can the crew evaluate the quality of the landing radar data from the displays available to them prior to permitting the data to be accepted by the PNGCS? For example, is it possible for it to read…
TLI platform alignment
Something came out of Ron Berry’s Midcourse Mission Techniques meeting of February 7 that I think should be advertised widely. Apparently, we now have agreement among all parties, including FCOD and FOD, that the proper platform orientation for the TLI maneuver on a lunar mission is the one established prelaunch on the pad for use…
Fourth Mission “C” Rendezvous Mission Techniques meeting
As a result of our deliberations today (February 16) I think we have finally determined what to do about delta V residuals on the NCC₁ maneuver. Previously, it had been stated that we would probably trim out small values but, in order to save RCS, would allow larger values to propagate to the subsequent maneuvers,…
Landmarks for lunar tracking
On February 1 a bunch of us who had been working on operational procedures associated with lunar landmark tracking got together with some of the Lunar Mapping people who have the responsibility for selecting and precisely locating the lunar landmarks to be used. This was a rather refreshing get together since, as strange as it…
Lunar Mission Reentry Mission Techniques meeting
A Mission Techniques Data Priority meeting is scheduled on March 7, 1968, at 9:00 a.m. in Building 2, Room 730, to discuss entry from a lunar mission. This mission phase begins 9 to 10 hours before landing and includes final midcourse maneuvers if required, preparation for reentry, and reentry itself. We expect to pay particular…
We will start Data Priority Mission Techniques meetings on the Mission “E” Rendezvous.
Just as the deadline proclaims—we will have our first “E” Rendezvous meeting at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, March 4, 1968, in Room 390, Building 4. It will be a short kickoff affair with emphasis on getting up to date on the mission and flight plans as they exist today….
Lunar Orbit Navigation and Targeting Mission Techniques meeting
A Mission Techniques Data Priority meeting is scheduled on March 14, 1968, at 9:00 a.m. in Building 30, Room 3044, to discuss lunar orbit navigation and ascent and descent targeting. As you are no doubt aware, there are many unresolved problems associated with these operations on the lunar landing mission involving the lunar orbit timeline,…
Fifth “C” Mission Rendezvous Mission Techniques meeting
We had another “C” Mission Rendezvous Mission Techniques meeting on February 23. We resolved a few things and reworked the flow charts some more at this meeting….