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Apr 2, 2018

Apollo On-board Guidance History (Part 16, Apollo Control Systems)

[This article is based mainly on D.G. Hoag's paper about Apollo's on-board Guidance, Navigation, and Control System history /10/]

APOLLO ON-BOARD GN(et)CS HISTORY /10/

"This account is written from the point of view of one who experienced the hectic but exciting years. An enormous amount of material has been left out for practical reasons, and many worthy names regretfully remain unmentioned. Technical details have been deliberately played down: they can be found in the bibliography. The overall message is simple: In an incredible and audacious task, the landing of men on the moon, the guidance equipment for the mission was created out of primitive principles, prolific imagination, and a lot of hard work." -- Hoag, D.G.

The Beginnings /10/

"The forerunner of the Apollo guidance, navigation, and control system (GNetCS)), is found in an unmanned spacecraft and mission study started in 1957 by the Instrumentation Laboratory at MIT under a contract with the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division.

Milton Trageser (left), Hal Laning and Richard Battin