History, Politics And Current Affairs

...The NASA/Apollo checklist for what to do if MCC is completely lost:
Mike

I am unable to understand most of the TLAs or FLAs, and therefore don't fully grasp the scariness of the post.

Can someone explain further?

Belushi TD

Belushi TD wrote: ↑Fri Apr 12, 2024 12:18 pm I am unable to understand most of the TLAs or FLAs, and therefore don't fully grasp the scariness of the post.

Can someone explain further?

Belushi TD

How do you control a moon flight if someone nukes Houston?

Belushi TD wrote: ↑Fri Apr 12, 2024 12:18 pm I am unable to understand most of the TLAs or FLAs, and therefore don't fully grasp the scariness of the post.

Can someone explain further?

Belushi TD

...The fella who posted this said that no one was particularly worried about Houston being nuked, but there was apparently a deep-seated concern that A Certain Other Country could/would sabotage MCC during Apollo 11.

The feeling seems to have been that comms would be sporty and that it would be literal seat-of-the-pants flying all the way home, but it was believed that they would be able to get the crew home.

Mike

MikeKozlowski wrote: ↑Fri Apr 12, 2024 4:17 pm

Belushi TD wrote: ↑Fri Apr 12, 2024 12:18 pm I am unable to understand most of the TLAs or FLAs, and therefore don't fully grasp the scariness of the post.

Can someone explain further?

Belushi TD

...The fella who posted this said that no one was particularly worried about Houston being nuked, but there was apparently a deep-seated concern that A Certain Other Country could/would sabotage MCC during Apollo 11.

The feeling seems to have been that comms would be sporty and that it would be literal seat-of-the-pants flying all the way home, but it was believed that they would be able to get the crew home.

Mike

Plot bunny is now awake.

Poohbah wrote: ↑Fri Apr 12, 2024 4:51 pm

MikeKozlowski wrote: ↑Fri Apr 12, 2024 4:17 pm

Belushi TD wrote: ↑Fri Apr 12, 2024 12:18 pm I am unable to understand most of the TLAs or FLAs, and therefore don't fully grasp the scariness of the post.

Can someone explain further?

Belushi TD

...The fella who posted this said that no one was particularly worried about Houston being nuked, but there was apparently a deep-seated concern that A Certain Other Country could/would sabotage MCC during Apollo 11.

The feeling seems to have been that comms would be sporty and that it would be literal seat-of-the-pants flying all the way home, but it was believed that they would be able to get the crew home.

Mike

Plot bunny is now awake.

Poohbah,

I wondered what that noise was.

Mike

Instead of going after the MCC, it would easier going after Ground stations. I don't think you need to hit all three, but getting one or two would be enough.

MikeKozlowski wrote: ↑Fri Apr 12, 2024 4:17 pm

Belushi TD wrote: ↑Fri Apr 12, 2024 12:18 pm I am unable to understand most of the TLAs or FLAs, and therefore don't fully grasp the scariness of the post.

Can someone explain further?

Belushi TD

...The fella who posted this said that no one was particularly worried about Houston being nuked, but there was apparently a deep-seated concern that A Certain Other Country could/would sabotage MCC during Apollo 11.

The feeling seems to have been that comms would be sporty and that it would be literal seat-of-the-pants flying all the way home, but it was believed that they would be able to get the crew home.

Mike

The Apollo Command Module had a guidance computer onboard so in the event of loss of communication the crew could get itself home. There was a big push during the Apollo program for a integrated circuit onboard navigation computer. The concern was more about loss of communication than the MCC going offline. During a normal mission the guidance computer would be updated with data from the ground but the system onboard was fully capable of working without any updates.

brovane wrote: ↑Fri Apr 12, 2024 9:28 pm

MikeKozlowski wrote: ↑Fri Apr 12, 2024 4:17 pm

Belushi TD wrote: ↑Fri Apr 12, 2024 12:18 pm I am unable to understand most of the TLAs or FLAs, and therefore don't fully grasp the scariness of the post.

Can someone explain further?

Belushi TD

...The fella who posted this said that no one was particularly worried about Houston being nuked, but there was apparently a deep-seated concern that A Certain Other Country could/would sabotage MCC during Apollo 11.

The feeling seems to have been that comms would be sporty and that it would be literal seat-of-the-pants flying all the way home, but it was believed that they would be able to get the crew home.

Mike

The Apollo Command Module had a guidance computer onboard so in the event of loss of communication the crew could get itself home. There was a big push during the Apollo program for a integrated circuit onboard navigation computer. The concern was more about loss of communication than the MCC going offline. During a normal mission the guidance computer would be updated with data from the ground but the system onboard was fully capable of working without any updates.

I believe the original idea was that the Apollo PGNCS (primary guidance, navigation, and control system) and computer would be the primary system for the flight. To get it that reliable was taking so much time and effort that they went the other way with the ground updates being primary and the onboard being backup. Still it was good enough to handle things just in case.

Here's a question: Was there an actual backup facility in another location for MCC? Today they have a couple of standbys like in Huntsville. I also know the Marshall center had their own ops room where they had more detailed monitoring of the Saturn V then what Houston was handling. Like they knew in real time that Apollo 6's 1st stage was POGO'ing

Rocket J Squrriel wrote: ↑Fri Apr 12, 2024 9:52 pm Here's a question: Was there an actual backup facility in another location for MCC? Today they have a couple of standbys like in Huntsville. I also know the Marshall center had their own ops room where they had more detailed monitoring of the Saturn V then what Houston was handling. Like they knew in real time that Apollo 6's 1st stage was POGO'ing

I don't think so. For one thing, they had only two craft out at once, and for a limited time. And a backup room isn't much use without a backup team, which they didn't have in place.

That said, this whole conversation brings Lovell asking mission control to set their telemetry switch to "accept" while Apollo 8 was on the way home. (He did star sightings as a backup, and his were good enough that he was joking about passing his data to Houston instead of the other way around.)