How Apollo flew to the Moon

[sheeny]

I have just finished reading "How Apollo flew to the moon" by W. David Woods ISBN978-0-387-71675-6 from Springer. What a great read! If you have a little bit of a technical bent, you'll love it.

It goes into detail about how things were done and why they were done that way. They explain the figures and jargon in most of the radio transmissions. I am looking forward to rewatching a my Apollo movies with a better appreciation of the calls.

I had not realized that the CM actually flew and was steerable during re-entry.

Its not your typical Apollo/NASA hype. I recommend it.

Al.

[Hans Tucker]

Ok...now that is interesting.

I have read Tom Kelly's book describing the development and construction of the LM. Maybe a read on the CM is in order.

[sheeny]

Yeah, I thought so. The CM had thrusters that can roll it only- no pitch and yaw, but the center of mass was arranged for re-entry so the blunt end was presented 27 degs off square and the whole capsule behaved as a wing at high speed. They flew either heads up or heads down to flatten or steepen the approach path, and could roll up to 15 degs either side to steer without affecting lift. Every Apollo re-entry was flown entirely by computer but they had the option to take manual control and fly by instruments.

After the first few lunar flights they were so accurate with their landings they were worried about hitting the aircraft carrier, so they moved the carrier a few kms away from the center of the landing zone!

I had previously thought that re-entry was entirely ballistic.

There's lots of other interesting stuff in the book as well (I think).:)

Al.

[widow18]

Does it have lots of pictures or diagrams?
Seriously, I would like to get in on Kindle but if there are illustrations they don't generally come out very well.
Regards
Peter

[sheeny]

There's a few photos, but not many. There would be about as many line diagrams, but they should be OKon a reader.

Al.

[RB]

Thanks for the heads-up Al, looks like a great read.
Is it only available in e-book or is it also on paperback?

RB