Apollo Guidance, Navigation, and Control (Gnc) Hardware Overview

A top-level architectural approach facilitates the provision of communications and navigation support services to the anticipated lunar mission set. Following the principles of systems architecting (i.e., form follows function) the first step is to define the functions or services to be provided, both in terms of character and degree. These will include communication (telemetry and command) as well as tracking and navigation services. Required performance levels are derived from analysis of the lunar mission model. Consideration of the special needs of robotic and human mission support is appropriate, as is the evolution of the service provision system to the eventual human exploration of Mars. Architectural forms are those physical assets, both hardware and software, that are used to enable the functions to be performed and the services to be delivered. These may include ground stations, lunar relay satellites, Earth-orbiting satellites, optical communications assets, and allocated...

2006

perform research in systems analysis, communications architecture, and signal processing within the Communications Technology Division at NASA's Glenn Research Center. J. Russell Carpenter has a long history of accomplishments in navigation while working in NASA Goddard's Flight Dynamics Analysis with Kevin Berry. Todd Ely is with the NASA JPL's Guidance, Navigation, and Control section and has worked on Mars and lunar navigation architectures; he developed a class of inclined elliptical frozen orbits for the Moon.

Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, 2012

A piloted simulation that studied the handling qualities for a precision lunar landing task from final approach to touchdown is presented. A vehicle model based on NASA's Altair Lunar Lander was used to explore the design space around the nominal vehicle configuration to determine which combination of factors provides satisfactory pilot-vehicle performance and workload; details of the control and propulsion systems not available for that vehicle were derived from Apollo Lunar Module data. The experiment was conducted on a large motion base simulator. Eight Space Shuttle and Apollo pilot astronauts and three NASA test pilots served as evaluation pilots, providing Cooper-Harper ratings, Task Load Index ratings and qualitative comments. Each pilot flew seven combinations of control response types and three sets of displays, including two varieties of guidance and a nonguided approach. The response types included Rate Command with Attitude Hold, which was used in the original Apollo Moon landings, a Velocity Increment Command response type designed for up-and-away flight, three response types designed specifically for the vertical descent portion of the trajectory, and combinations of these. It was found that Velocity Increment Command significantly improved handling qualities when compared with the baseline Apollo design, receiving predominantly Level 1 ratings. This response type could be flown with or without explicit guidance cues, something that was very difficult with the baseline design, and resulted in approximately equivalent touchdown accuracies and propellant burn as the baseline response type. The response types designed to be used exclusively in the vertical descent portion of the trajectory did not improve handling qualities.

AIAA SPACE 2009 Conference & Exposition, 2009

This paper discusses the establishment of a Supportability Technology Development Roadmap as a guide for developing capabilities intended to allow NASA's Constellation program to enable a supportable, sustainable and affordable exploration of the Moon and Mars. Presented is a discussion of "supportability," in terms of space facility maintenance, repair and related logistics and a comparison of how lunar outpost supportability differs from the International Space Station. Supportability lessons learned from NASA and Department of Defense experience and their impact on a future lunar outpost is discussed. A supportability concept for future missions to the Moon and Mars that involves a transition from a highly logistics dependent to a logistically independent operation is discussed. Lunar outpost supportability capability needs are summarized and a supportability technology development strategy is established. The resulting Lunar Surface Systems Supportability Strategy defines general criteria that will be used to select technologies that will enable future flight crews to act effectively to respond to problems and exploit opportunities in a environment of extreme resource scarcity and isolation. This strategy also introduces the concept of exploiting flight hardware as a supportability resource. The technology roadmap involves development of three mutually supporting technology categories, Diagnostics Test and Verification, Maintenance and Repair, and Scavenging and Recycling. The technology roadmap establishes two distinct technology types, "Embedded" and "Process" technologies, with different implementation and thus different criteria and development approaches. The supportability technology roadmap addresses the technology readiness level, and estimated development schedule for technology groups that includes down-selection decision gates that correlate with the lunar program milestones. The resulting supportability technology roadmap is intended to develop a set of technologies with widest possible capability and utility with a minimum impact on crew time and training and remain within the time and cost constraints of the Constellation program 16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: 17. LIMITATION OF ABSTRACT UU 18. NUMBER OF PAGES 42 19a. NAME OF RESPONSIBLE PERSON STI Help Desk (email:help@sti.nasa.gov) a. REPORT U b. ABSTRACT U c. THIS PAGE U 19b. TELEPHONE NUMBER (include area code) 443-757-5802 Standard Form 298 (Rev. 8-98) Prescribed by ANSI Std. Z39-18

NAVIGATION: Journal of the Institute of Navigation

With the Moon becoming the next long-term objective in space for both agencies NASA, 2021) and private actors (NASA, 2020), the number of expected missions to Earth's natural satellite might exceed, already in this decade, the overall number reached in the 1960s-1970s (Euroconsult, 2020). In the past, lunar missions have almost entirely relied on direct-to-Earth (DTE) communications, whilst using ranging radiometric measurements from Earth for navigation. The benefits of a lunar relay infrastructure were already envisaged in the early years of the Apollo missions ) and were also demonstrated by the recent far-side landing of the Chinese Chang'E 4 mission ; the latter focused on relaying telemetry to ground rather than providing an independent orbit determination and navigation solution). The growing trend in the number of missions to the Moon is creating demand for the deployment of a lunar communication and navigation infrastructure to support the international community. This, in turn, can act as a catalyst for additional public and private worldwide cislunar initiatives.

2022

The interest in returning to the Moon for research and exploration has increased as new tipping point technologies are providing the possibility to do so. One of these initiatives is the Artemis program by NASA, which plans to return humans by 2024 to the lunar surface and study water deposits in the surface. This program will also serve as a practice run to plan the logistics of sending humans to explore Mars. To return humans safely to the Moon, multiple technological advances and diverse knowledge about the nature of the lunar surface are needed. This paper will discuss the design and implementation of the flight software of EagleCam, a CubeSat camera system based on the free open-source core Flight System (cFS) architecture developed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. EagleCam is a payload transported to the Moon by the Commercial Lunar Payload Services Nova-C lander developed by Intuitive Machines. The camera system will capture the first third-person view of a spacecraft performing a Moon landing and collect other scientific data such as plume interaction with the surface. The complete system is composed of the CubeSat and the deployer that will eject it. This will be the first time WiFi protocol is used on the Moon to establish a local communication network.

2011

ascent, as did the Orbiter during on-orbit and descent operations. Such challenges required innovations such as fly-by-wire, computer redundancy for robust systems, open-loop main engine control, and navigational aides. These tools and concepts led to groundbreaking technologies that are being used today in other space programs and will be used in future space programs. Other government agencies as well as commercial and academic institutions also use these analysis tools. NASA faced a major challenge in the development of instruments for the Space Shuttle Main Engines—engines that operated at speeds, pressures, vibrations, and temperatures that were unprecedented at the time. NASA developed unique instruments and software supporting shuttle navigation and flight inspections. In addition, the general purpose computer used on the shuttle had static random access memory, which was susceptible to memory bit errors or bit flips from cosmic rays. These bit flips presented a formidable ch...

2014

The Multi-function Control and Display Unit (MCDU) has been identified as a source of issues pilots have transitioning to glass cockpits. Several aircraft manufacturers and avion-ics vendors have committed to replace the MCDU with graphical user-interfaces in the next generation of commer-cial aircraft. A cognitive task analysis of pilot-MCDU interaction, de-scribed in this paper, has identified that pilot failure to com-plete mission tasks using the MCDU is not a sole conse-quence of the physical dimensions or layout of the device. Instead, the MCDU interface works adequately when a given pilot task: (1) is supported directly by a function provided by the automation, and (2) the access of MCDU pages, and format and entry of data, are prompted by labels and other visual cues (and not by memorized actions sequences). Pilot tasks not supported directly by automation, and/or pilots tasks that rely on memorized action sequences are difficult to learn and likely not to be used effectivel...

IEEE Transactions on Aerospace, 1965

Flight monitoring and control of manned spacecraft requires near-real-time assessment of large quantities of complex data. To provide centralized control, a Mission Control Center has been established at the Manned Spacecraft Center at Houston, Texas. This paper describes the design philosophy for the Display and Control System, with emphasis on modularity, versatility, and reliability. Technical and operational details are provided for the equipment designed and implemented to satisfy the flight control requirements.

2009 IEEE Aerospace conference, 2009

Strategic level analysis of the integrated behavior of lunar transportation and lunar surface systems architecture options is performed to assess the benefit, viability, affordability, and robustness of system design choices. This analysis employs both deterministic and probabilistic modeling techniques so that the extent of potential future uncertainties associated with each option are properly characterized. The results of these analyses are summarized in a predefined set of high-level Figures of Merit (FOMs) so as to provide senior NASA Constellation Program (CxP) and Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) management with pertinent information to better inform strategic level decision making. 1,2