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Apollo Command Module primary guidance system components Apollo Lunar Module primary guidance system components Apollo Inertial Measurement Unit. The Apollo primary guidance, navigation, and control system (PGNCS, pronounced pings) was a self-contained inertial guidance system that allowed Apollo spacecraft to carry out their missions when communications with Earth were interrupted, either as ...
The ST-124-M3 inertial platform was a device for measuring acceleration and attitude of the Saturn V launch vehicle. It was carried by the Saturn V Instrument Unit, a 3-foot-high (0.91 m), 22-foot-diameter (6.7 m) section of the Saturn V that fit between the third stage (S-IVB) and the Apollo spacecraft. Its nomenclature means "stable table ...
Diagram of Saturn V instrument unit. The Saturn V instrument unit is a ring-shaped structure fitted to the top of the Saturn V rocket's third stage and the Saturn IB's second stage (also an S-IVB). It was immediately below the SLA (Spacecraft/Lunar Module Adapter) panels that contained the Apollo Lunar Module. The instrument unit contains the ...
The result was an estimated reliability of 99.6% over 250 hours of operation, which was far more than the few hours required for an Apollo mission. With four memory modules, giving a total capacity of 16,384 words, the computer weighed 72.5 lb (32.9 kg), was 29.5 by 12.5 by 10.5 inches (750 mm × 320 mm × 270 mm) in size and consumed 137W.
Astronauts manually flew Project Gemini with control sticks, but computers flew most of Project Apollo except briefly during lunar landings. [6] Each Moon flight carried two AGCs, one each in the command module and the Apollo Lunar Module, with the exception of Apollo 7 which was an Earth orbit mission and Apollo 8 which did not need a lunar module for its lunar orbit mission.
Apollo lunar missions would begin with a nominal 100-nautical-mile (185.2 km) circular Earth parking orbit. Apollo 8 was launched into an initial orbit with an apogee of 99.99 nautical miles (185.18 km) and a perigee of 99.57 nautical miles (184.40 km), with an inclination of 32.51° to the Equator, and an orbital period of 88.19
Apollo astronauts frequently aligned their spacecraft inertial navigation platforms and determined their positions relative to the Earth and Moon by sighting sets of stars with optical instruments. As a practical joke, the Apollo 1 crew named three of the stars in the Apollo catalog after themselves and introduced them into NASA documentation.
The Apollo 11 instrument functioned through August of the landing year. The instruments placed by the Apollo 12 , 14 , 15 , and 16 missions were functional until they were switched off in 1977. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Moonquakes are not believed to be caused by tectonic plate movement (as earthquakes are), but by tidal forces between Earth and the Moon. [ 3 ]