One of the largest error sources affecting precision landing on the moon is the LM platform alignment accuracy at PDI. The AOT is adequate to fly an Apollo 11 type mission but it is simply not designed to support precise landings; AOT alignments, as currently carried out, leave something to be desired. The result is…
Month: October 1969
Apollo 12 Newsletter
So many things have changed – some subtly, some considerably – that I thought a newsletter might be useful. It is written particularly for those of you who have not been directly involved in preparation for Apollo 12….
Apollo Spacecraft Software Configuration Control Board meeting number 32
On October 9 Chris Kraft convened the first Software Configuration Board meeting since June 5 at MIT. We had a real pot full of PCR’s to discuss, some of which were approved for Apollo 13, some for 14, and some were put in a category in which MIT was to continue development to a point…
Let’s hear it for “Delta Guidance”!
As part of the Apollo software team’s contribution in the search for extra LM hover time and/or payload capability, they are vigorously working on the development of a new descent guidance and throttle control technique. The pay off could be impressive compared to things like trying to decrease LM weight. Specifically, a ΔV improvement on…
Don’t turn off the landing radar
A ripple just passed through our system, which I probably ought to document for the record. Pete Conrad called the other day suggesting that it might be a good nominal procedure to inhibit (V58E) landing radar data from the PGNCS at about the time it exits the Descent visibilty phase (P64). Ordinarily, this would be…
Automatic CSM Rendezvous
Partly because of Mike Collin’s post-flight criticisms and partly because we don’t have anything else to do anymore, some of us MSC and MIT guys had a little meeting the other day to discuss implementation of a quasi-automatic CSM rendezvous capability in the GNCS. Of course, it is impossible to provide a fully automatic rendezvous…
Spacecraft separation procedures
I blundered into something the other day which is probably none of my business but is interesting, so I thought I would bring your attention to it. Some time before Apollo 10 the trajectory flight controllers assembled a “Cookbook” of spacecraft separation recipes condensed from the myriad of proposals and recommendations that have been floating…
AGS licks PGNCS for RCS Insertion
Pete Conrad has discovered and, if necessary, intends to do something that Dan Payne and others around here got squared away a year or more ago. Unfortunately, due to the press of more urgent business, we failed to advertise it enough. This note is to make sure you know that the AGS does a better…