Quote:
Originally Posted by Dennis
I think that subsequent Apollo Missions had the CSM fire its thrusters when the CSM and LM separated in lunar orbit, whereas on Apollo 11, the LM fired its thrusters at separation which "might" have accounted for the slight increase in approach speed.
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Plus from Apollo 12 onward, they added different pre-computed offsets to
each of the landing site targets based on what they then knew about the
mascons from Lunar Orbiter data analysis.
The LM Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) program suite, which was
named "LUMINARY", was not changed so I gather they would simply
enter landing target coordinates according to those derived after applying
the offsets to the nominal target coordinates.
You will recollect Apollo 12 landed within 180 metres of Surveyor 3.
An impressive feat given the distance from the Earth to the Moon.