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DESTINATION MOON: A History of the
Lunar Orbiter Program
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- CHAPTER VIII: LUNAR ORBITER
MISSION OBJECTIVES AND APOLLO REQUIREMENTS
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- OSSA and OMSF Planning
Activities
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- [177] While Langley
and Boeing accelerated the construction and testing phase of the
program, the work of designing the Orbiter missions brought the
Office of Space Science and Applications and the Office of Manned
Space Flight to a long series of plenary meetings and task group
assignments. This work greatly assisted Langley in its own mission
planning activities.
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- The Lunar Orbiter Program was well into
its third quarter of operations when Dr. George E. Mueller,
Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight, sent a memorandum
to Bellcomm, a contractor to his office, requesting answers to two
items fundamental to Apollo site selection: 1) Who held the
responsibility for lunar site selection and analysis? 2) Who,
where, and how were the films and other data generated by the
Lunar Orbiter and the Surveyor Program going to be
stored?1
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- Mueller's November 3, 1964, memorandum,
brought a quick response from Bellcomm. It reviewed the status of
work related to lunar site analysis and selection. This became
[178]
the basis for the organization of the Surveyor/Orbiter Utilization
Committee. On December 23 Bellcomm. reported to Mueller's office
that Apollo landing site selection was a function of OMSF. It had
the responsibility of defining strategies, goals, schedules, and
trajectories with OSSA. The report suggested that OMSF form a
working group charged with:
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- a. Examining the problem of lunar site
analysis and selection.
- b. Recommending the initiation of any work
necessary.
- c. Making recommendations on any new
facilities needed for the adequate analysis and storage of the
data.
- d. Examining the necessary funding and
identifying the responsible organizations.
- e. Identifying the manner, in which
landing site selection should be accomplished.2
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- The proposed working group would consist
of a chairman reporting either to the Associate Administrator for
Manned Space Flight or to the Apollo Program Director, Maj. Gen.
Samuel C. Phillips. The Office of Space Science and Applications
would assign representatives from the Surveyor and the Lunar
Orbiter Programs. The Manned Space Flight Center would assign
representatives from the Apollo Spacecraft Project Office, the
Flight Operations Division, and the Flight Crew Operations
Division. Manned Space Flight Operations and Manned
[179]
Systems Engineering in the Office of Manned Space Flight, with the
Bellcomm Site Survey Group, would also appoint representatives.
Lastly, the Bellcomm memorandum to Mueller recommended that Myron
W. Krueger, the OMSF man responsible for lunar photographic data,
be assigned.3 This would form the nucleus of the more formal
Surveyor/Orbiter Utilization Committee which came into being at a
later date.
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- As of December 23, 1964 the Office of
Manned Space Flight had no organization to accept and store
Surveyor or Lunar Orbiter data. No organized group existed to
perform lunar site analysis and selection. The Apollo Project
Development Plan stated the need for a working group to make
recommendations to the appropriate groups within OMSF on the
optimum utilization of data, but no such group had been set up. On
the other hand the Lunar Orbiter Project Office had already set up
a working group to make recommendations on the form of data and
its storage and retrieval. And Bellcomm's Site Survey Group
monitored site survey programs for Lunar Orbiter and Surveyor and
developed strategies for the use of systems in these
programs.4 The time had come for the Office of Manned Space
Flight and the Office of Space Science and Applications to form
firmer working relations.
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- [180] On September 22,
1964, Oran W. Nicks had informed the Apollo Program Director,
General Phillips., about the mission planning effort that the
Lunar Orbiter Program was undertaking at Langley. This effort
could possibly influence Apollo hardware design. Nicks suggested
that OMSF make a study of specific Lunar Orbiter missions in
support of Apollo. The recommendations of the study would aid the
Lunar Orbiter Program Office in developing guidelines for actual
mission planning activities at the Langley Research Center and at
Boeing. Nicks pointed out that Bellcomm had very qualified men to
make such a study for OMSF.5
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- Nicks's memorandum resulted in a Bellcomm
study for OMSF during the remainder of 1964. On February 18, 1965,
Phillips sent Nicks the report of the study, "Lunar Orbiter
Mission Planning," by Douglas D. Lloyd and Robert F. Fudali of
Bellcomm. Phillips expressed a willingness to have further joint
study done if Nicks agreed that it was
necessary.6
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- The Lloyd-Fudali report explained that
Lunar Orbiter could take nearly identical photographs in different
ways. [181] Two simulated missions were described in the
report, one in a posigrade orbit, the other in a retrograde orbit.
Further, the study had reached the following conclusions:
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- 1. The strategy of contiguous
high-resolution photography of multiple targets should be used.
This would permit successful site survey with only a single Lunar
Orbiter.
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- 2. To allow the above, the camera
sequencer control should be changed to include a quantity control
for providing eight consecutive photographs.
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- 3. The quantity of gas made available for
the attitude control system should be sufficient for a minimum of
sixteen separate photographic maneuvers.
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- 4. To achieve at least 1-meter optical
pair resolution, photographs should be taken from a nominal height
of 46 km or less.
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- 5. To avoid the possible problem of
orbital instability for the above low-altitude orbit. because of
the uncertainties in knowledge of the moon's spherical harmonic
terms, the orbit should be inclined no more than 7° to the
lunar equator.7
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- Further Bellcomm research during March
1965 produced a paper entitled "Apollo Lunar Site Analysis and
Selection," which was transmitted to General Phillips. Pointing
out that Lunar Orbiter and Surveyor were the two prime
data-gathering systems for Apollo, it recommended that OMSF and
OSSA set up a joint Site Survey Steering Committee. Its major task
[182] would be the definition of the objectives and use of Lunar
Orbiter and Surveyor for the Apollo Program's needs. The committee
would have the responsibility for target selection, launch
schedules, choice of measurements, measurement priority and
instrument complement, control of data handling, and
recommendations on data analysis for each Lunar Orbiter and
Surveyor mission.8
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- On May 10 Brian T. Howard of Bellcomm
reported to General Phillips that in addition to earlier
recommendations for Lunar Orbiter and Surveyor tasks in Apollo
site selection, Bellcomm had considered two more proposals related
to the organization of cooperative OMSF-OSSA activities in site
analysis and selection. First, it seemed highly desirable to set
up a joint OMSF-OSSA Lunar Surface Working Group. It would report
to the Apollo Program Office and to the Lunar and Planetary
Programs Office. It would coordinate mutual planning activities
concerning site survey requirements and the ways in which they
could be satisfied. Second, Bellcomm recommended that the Manned
Space Flight Center's Data Analysis Division subcontract with JPL
for the prime responsibility of gathering, analyzing, and
evaluating data.9
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