Apollo and Gemini Computer Systems Library

[gary]

A wonderful collection of Apollo and Gemini project Computing Systems
documents hosted on www.ibiblio.org and covering areas such as the Apollo Guidance
Computer (AGC), the Abort Guidance System (AGS) and the
Launch Vehicle Digital Computer (LVDC) can be found here -
http://www.ibiblio.org/apollo/links.html

Revel in the beauty of documents such as this set of training slides for
the Apollo Guidance and Control Systems, including the occasional hand-written
annotation by the original owner -
http://www.ibiblio.org/apollo/Docume...l_02-10-67.pdf

Or reflect on what it must have felt like to be handed a copy of the
Apollo 11 Final Flight Plan on July 1, 1969 -
http://www.ibiblio.org/apollo/Docume...FlightPlan.pdf
(Note details such as the navigational star sightings pp 215-216).

Or contemplate the implications of a sentence such as this, which appears
on page 19 of the "General Design Characteristics of the Apollo Guidance Computer"
May 1963 -

Originally Posted by Eldon Hall, MIT Instrumentation Laboratory

Since the computer has an inflight MTBF of 4000 hours, the probability of
success is 0.966. Therefore, we must rely on inflight repair in order to realize
the required probability of success of 0.99995.

Thank goodness for people who think big. Engineering at its best.

Collection here -
http://www.ibiblio.org/apollo/links.html

[MrB (Simon)]

Awesome!
The memo's are very interesting.

[lacad01 (Adam)]

Very interesting site, thanks for sharing that

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

Mega cool....

[gary]

I've been browsing the "Saturn V Flight Manual" published in 1969 which the forward
describes as "This manual is prepared to provide the astronaut with a single source
reference to the characteristics and functions of the SA-507 launch vehicle".

Imagine being handed the manual to this baby.

And you thought the warnings in the owners manual for the Husqvarna chain-saw
you bought were scary.

How about stuff like this on page 3-9 of the Saturn V owner's manual which you
have to recollect at liftoff whilst you are pulling 6 G's -

With S-IC/S-II staging, the S-II SEP light will illuminate.
The light will go out approximately 30 seconds later when the interstage structure
is jettisoned. A severe overheating problem will occur if the structure is not
jettisoned at the nominal time. Under the worst conditions, abort limits will
be reached within 25 seconds from nominal jettison time. Confirmation from Mission
Control of interstage failure to jettison serves as the second abort cue.

During the earth orbit phase of the mission the S-II SEP light is again used.
It is turned ON to indicate the beginning of restart preparations at T6 + 0.1 seconds.
It is turned OFF at T6 + 41.5 seconds to indicate O2H2 burner ignition. It is
turned ON again at T6 + 8 minutes 40 seconds and OFF again at at T6 + 9 minutes
+ 20 seconds to indicate translunar injection (TLI) commit (engine start - 10 seconds).

WARNING

After TLI commit (T6 + 9 minutes 20 seconds) the only way remaining to effect a
TLI inhibit is with the T-handle.

Wow. Love it!

Paying attention? Because we will be asking questions after the lecture.

The manual here -
http://www.ibiblio.org/apollo/Docume...nual-SA507.pdf

[multiweb (Marc)]

Very cool links Gary. Thanks for sharing.

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Thanks, once again, for one of your superb posts Gary. It boggles the mind how complex these systems were, and how well managed the manuals and documentation had to be. I remember when I worked for IBM in the early 80's that manuals for mid-range systems up to mainframes were similar in their design and general approach. What looks ominously complex for a single person to understand from top to bottom was very neatly broken down into linked manageable chunks using a systematic technique called "mapping" - or flowcharts. You just had to master one segment at a time, and didn't really need to know the whole animal as such. What I learned to love was the nomenclature, or IBM-Speak. It is nearly identical to NASA-Speak in many respects. Everything was reduced to acronyms, and I mean everything. Calling a "fan" a fan wasn't on - it was called an "A.M.D" - short for "air movement device" - longer than the proper term. LOL Great stuff.

I think that in space you'd probably need to however. You had to analyse and react to problems almost instinctively or possibly not make it back. What amazingly intelligent human beings we sent out there.

[The_bluester (Paul)]

Sounds a bit like the radar system I used to work on. Built by Alenia in Italy and the translation of the manuals was a bit lacking.

The structure was a bit like you talked about with about 15 separate manuals to cover each individual logical block of the system. Loaded with acronyms. Most of the course on the radar was to learn to drive the manuals, particularly to deal with the Italian grammar as the translation was pretty much word for word without rearranging the grammar to suit English. The kicker came about two months into the course when reading ahead. I realised I had made no sense at all of a couple of paragraphs so read them again, then again, then realised they were still written in Italian! They just missed that page in the translation, but you had got so used to the grammar and flow of it (practically reading to yourself with an Italian accent!) that it did not hit you right away.

Yars later they did a new translation into a proper RAAF format manual but they were not nearly as good.