This memorandum is a compilation of my ideas and opinions in response to a request from your office regarding the questions of whether MIT should be chosen to perform spacecraft computer program development for AAP, and, if they were, would the impact on their Apollo work be acceptable. They are based on my observations and…
Rendezvous meeting reminder
This note is to remind you of our Rendezvous meetings on January 3, 1968. In the morning we hope to discuss Rendezvous on the “C” mission starting at 9:00 a.m. and in the afternoon Rendezvous on the “D” mission starting about 1:00pm….
D Rendezvous Open Items, Action Items or whatever you call them
I’ve reviewed my notes of the D Rendezvous meetings over the last couple of months and have found the following open/action items. I guess most, if not all, are being worked on. But time grows short and so I’m sending this list around to make sure of it. If you know of others, please give…
Some assumptions about Spacecraft 101 retrofire and reenty procedures
We have recently held several small Trajectory Control Data Priority Working Group meetings dealing with Spacecraft 101 retrofire and reentry. The results are being documented to show how the various guidance and navigation data sources will be compared to one another and used during the mission. During these discussions a couple of basic assumptions have…
Let’s find out if the current MSFN performance is really not good enough for lunar operations.
On Monday, October 16, we had a briefing by the Math Physics people on the performance of MSFN tracking the Lunar Orbiter. As you are undoubtedly aware, orbit determination of that vehicle, once it was put in an Apollo type orbit, became a rather erroneous affair and they have not yet been able to determine…
Lunar rendezvous abort summary
A great deal of work has gone on over the years on the subject of lunar abort rendezvous, spearheaded by Morris Jenkins, Ed Lineberry, Buzz Aldrin and others. The results of some of this work have already been documented and more detailed reports are in the works. The primary reason I’m writing this note is…
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…
First meeting of the Descent Phase Mission Techniques Working Group
This memo is to request your participation in the detailed development of the Apollo Mission Techniques for the Descent phase of the lunar landing mission. We are setting up a small working group of the following composition to do this job:…
Relative orientation of the LM and CSM navigation bases
Unless some unexpected problem arises, it is currently planned to align the LM platform on the “D” mission for the docked DPS burns without AOT star observations. The primary reason for this is to save LM RCS fuel, although it is anticipated that overall crew procedures may also be simplified. The proposed technique involves taking…
Mission Techniques Documentation Schedule
Some people have asked me for a schedule of when the various Mission Techniques books will be coming out. I can’t remember who they all were so I’m sending it to everyone. I’ll update it in a couple of months….