This memo is to let you know about some things on the D Rendezvous that have been giving us a lot of trouble. The problem we have been having is associated with the football trajectory and how to exit from it gracefully. It seems like most of the significant mission techniques open items deal with…
C’ Contingency Review
We went through the draft of the C’ Contingency Mission Techniques document on October 22, and I must say I was impressed with its quality. It seemed to me the Flight Analysis Branch, the Apollo Abort Working Group, and TRW had done a good job of putting this together. The final version will be distributed…
Status report on the “P66” fix
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…
AAP CSM Computer Program Requirements meeting
I thought it might be fun to have an overall AAP CSM Computer Program Requirements meeting so we’ve scheduled one on Wednesday, January 28, 1970 at 9 a.m. in Room 966 of Building 2. At this time we would like to reach agreement upon a list of deletions which can be made to a particular…
Some Mission D contingency plans
During a recent D mission rules review a couple of interesting things came up that I hadn’t heard of before. You probably ought to know about:…
Should LM RCS jet #10 be disabled for the “D” mission docked DPS burn?
The following paragraph is extracted from MIT’s Spacecraft Autopilot Development Memo #11-68, dated July 24, 1968, by William S. Widnall….
More interesting things about our work with MIT
I always start out these MIT newsletters with the hope they will be short enough that you’ll be willing to read ’em. A couple of things came up at our Program Development Plan review on November 16 there that I thought I would pass on….
Review of the Mission Techniques for Saturn V/Apollo Launch Phase Aborts
This memo is to backup our phone call notifying you of the review of the Saturn V/Apollo Launch Phase Abort Mission Techniques Document to be held Thursday, October 3, 1968, at 1:00 p.m. in Building 4, Room 383. At that meeting we will thoroughly discuss the attached draft of that document, as it applies to…
LM Descent abortability computation is proposed
Ed Copps of MIT attended one of our mission techniques meeting recently during which we discussed the use of the LM Descent Propulsion System low level sensor light. This is the light, you recall, which comes on when approximately 30 seconds worth of propellant is still available at full thrust or two minutes at 25%…