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Go For Lunar LandingGo For Lunar Landing
Panel 3: Avionics
(GNC, automatic controls, displays, manual controls)Moderator: Mitch Fletcher, Honeywell
4 March 2008
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Pretend it’s 1965Pretend it’s 1965
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Pat Paulsen for PresidentPat Paulsen for President
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This is your calculatorThis is your calculator
1965 -- Texas Instruments (USA) begins work on a hand-held calculator, code named "Cal-Tech." It was to be developed as a prototype to show the potential of TI's recently-developed integrated circuits (which were not selling as well as they had hoped). The "Cal-Tech" featured four function calculations (+, -, x, /) and used a thermal paper tape printout. :
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SATURN I Block II Analog Flight Control ComputerSATURN I Block II Analog Flight Control Computer
•The analog Flight Control Computer was manufactured under subcontract to IBM by COMMUNICATIONS ELECTRONICS CORP in 1962 for the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC)•Operated in conjunction with the Launch Vehicle Digital Computer•The flight computer, installed within the Instrument Unit (IU) controlled extension/retraction of each of 12 gimbal servo-actuators•The Flight Control Computer analyzed input resulting from several forces acting on the vehicle such as engine thrust, wind, gravity and internal vehicle flexing and bending•The signals, measured and inputed from the stable platform, rate signals from rate gyros or lead networks, angle-of-attack information from body-fixed accelerometers and other sensors, are shaped, given a weighting function, and combined with program data in several servo amplifiers•The resultant amplified outputs drive the servo actuators which gimbal the engines to provide nozzle deflective thrust vector control for the S-I and S-IV stages.
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The Apollo Guidance ComputerThe Apollo Guidance Computer
• Clock-speed – The AGC had a clock-speed of 2.048 Mhz – The modern computer’s clock speed on the
average of 2.4 Ghz • RAM
– The AGC had a RAM of 4 Kb – The modern computer standard ram is 2000
kb • ROM
– The AGC has a ROM of 32 Kb – The modern computer standard main rom (the
hard disk) usually at 160+GB • Software Language
– The AGC was programmed by the “Assembly Language”
– The Microsoft Windows is programmed by “BASIC”
• REGISTERS– The AGC had a central registers of 16-bits– The modern computer CPU registers are now
64-bits
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Steps to the MoonSteps to the Moon
Apollo AnalogFlight Computer
Orion VehicleManagement
Computer
AltairComputer
Needs
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Avionics Panel DiscussionAvionics Panel Discussion
• Compare/Contrast Apollo to Constellation. Similarities, differences both mission and technologies.
• Training an intelligent simulator and Robotic Landing Control System (RLCS)– Pilot/astronaut input to artificial intelligence for lunar
landing.
• Testing an intelligent simulator and RLCS with manual vs. robotic control of an LLTV.
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Panel MembersPanel Members
Mike Aucoin……………….
Glenn A. Bever…………….
Graham O’Neil…………….
Rich Van Riper…………….
David B Smith……………..
Draper Laboratory
NASA DFRC, Flight Systems Branch
United Space Alliance
Honeywell (retired)
Boeing
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