Author: Gene J. MatrangaPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Astronauts
Languages : en
Pages : 228
Book Description
Unconventional, Contrary, and Ugly
Author: Gene J. MatrangaPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Astronauts
Languages : en
Pages : 228
Book Description
Exploring the Unknown
Author: Unconventional, Contrary, and Ugly
Author: National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationPublisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781493794454
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 242
Book Description
When the United States began considering a piloted voyage to the moon, an enormous number of unknowns about strategies, techniques, and equipment existed. Some people began wondering how a landing maneuver might be performed on the lunar surface. From the beginning of the age of flight, landing has been among the most challenging of flight maneuvers. Touching down smoothly has been the aim of pilots throughout the first century of flight. Designers have sought the optimum aircraft configuration for landing. Engineers have sought the optimum sensors and instruments for best providing the pilot with the information needed to perform the maneuver efficiently and safely. Pilots also have sought the optimum trajectory and control techniques to complete the approach and touchdown reliably and repeatably. Landing a craft on the moon was, in a number of ways, quite different from landing on Earth. The lunar gravitational field is much weaker than Earth's. There were no runways, lights, radio beacons, or navigational aids of any kind. The moon had no atmosphere. Airplane wings or helicopter rotors would not support the craft. The type of controls used conventionally on Earth-based aircraft could not be used. The lack of an atmosphere also meant that conventional flying instrumentation reflecting airspeed and altitude, and rate of climb and descent, would be useless because it relied on static and dynamic air pressure to measure changes, something lacking on the moon's surface. Lift could be provided by a rocket engine, and small rocket engines could be arranged to control the attitude of the craft. But what trajectories should be selected? What type of steering, speed, and rate-of-descent controls should be provided? What kind of sensors could be used? What kind of instruments would provide helpful information to the pilot? Should the landing be performed horizontally on wheels or skids, or vertically? How accurately would the craft need to be positioned for landing? What visibility would the pilot need, and how could it be provided? Some flight-test engineers at NASA's Flight Research Center were convinced that the best way to gain insight regarding these unknowns would be the use of a free-flying test vehicle. Aircraft designers at the Bell Aircraft (Aerosystems) Company believed they could build a craft that would duplicate lunar flying conditions. The two groups collaborated to build the machine. It was unlike any flying ma-chine ever built before or since. The Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV) was unconventional, sometimes contrary, and always ugly. Many who have seen video clips of the LLRV in flight believe it was designed and built to permit astronauts to practice landing the Apollo Lunar Module (LM). Actually, the LLRV project was begun before NASA had selected the strategy that would use the Lunar Module! Fortunately, when the Lunar Module was designed somewhat later, its characteristics were sufficiently similar to the LLRV that the LLRV could be used for LM simulation. A later version of the LLRV, the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle (LLTV), provided an even more accurate simulation following considerable modification to better represent the final descent stage. Unconventional, Contrary, & Ugly: The Lunar Landing Research Vehicle tells the complete story of this remarkable machine, the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle, including its difficulties, its successes, and its substantial contribution to the Apollo program. The authors are engineers who were at the heart of the effort. They tell the tale that they alone know and can describe.
NASA's First A
Author: Robert G. FergusonPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Aeronautics
Languages : en
Pages : 312
Book Description
William H. Pickering
Author: Douglas J. MudgwayPublisher: History Office
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 356
Book Description
Biography of William H. Pickering, 1910-2004 On the first day of February 1958, three men held aloft a model of Explorer 1, America's first Earth satellite, for the press photographers. That image of William Pickering, Wernher von Braun, and James Van Allen became an icon for America's response to the Sputnik challenge. Von Braun and Van Allen were well known, but who was Pickering? From humble beginnings in a remote country town in New Zealand, Pickering came to California in 1928 and quickly established himself as an outstanding student at the then-new California Institute of Technology (Caltech). At Caltech, Pickering worked under the famous physicist Robert Millikan on cosmic-ray experiments, at that time a relatively new field of physics. In 1944, when Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) was developing rocket propulsion systems for the U.S. Army, Pickering joined the work-force as a technical manager. He quickly established himself as an outstanding leader, and 10 years later, Caltech named him Director of JPL. And then, suddenly, the world changed. In October 1957, the Sputnik satellite startled the world with its spectacular demonstration of Soviet supremacy in space. Pickering led an intense JPL effort that joined with the von Braun and Van Allen teams to answer the Soviet challenge. Eighty-three days later, on 31 January 1958, America's first satellite roared into Earth orbit. A few months after that, Pickering's decision to affiliate JPL with the newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration set the basis for his subsequent career and the future of NASA's ambitious program for the exploration of the solar system. In the early days of the space program, failure followed failure as Pickering and his JPL team slowly ascended the learning curve. Eventually, however, NASA and JPL resolve paid off. First the Moon, then Venus, and then Mars yielded their scientific mysteries to JPL spacecraft of ever-increasing sophistication. Within its first decade, JPL-built spacecraft sent back the first close-up photographs of the lunar surface, while others journeyed far beyond the Moon to examine Venus and return the first close-up views of the surface of Mars. Later, even more complex space missions made successful soft-landings on the Moon and on Mars. Pickering's sudden death in March 2004 at the age of 93 was widely reported in the U.S. and overseas. As one NASA official eulogized him, His pioneering work formed the foundation upon which the current program for exploring our solar system was built. On this, the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Space Age, it is proper to remind ourselves of the ordinary people who met the extraordinary challenge to make it happen. (most of this is from the left inside flap of the dust jacket) r
The Spoken Word II
Author: Curtis PeeblesPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Aerospace engineers
Languages : en
Pages : 216
Book Description
Fairing Well
Author: Christian GelzerPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Trucks
Languages : en
Pages : 174
Book Description
Mars Wars
Author: Thor HoganPublisher: Government Printing Office
ISBN: 9780160831577
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 198
Book Description
On the 20th anniversary of the first human landing on the Moon, President George H.W. Bush stood atop the steps of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. and proposed a long-range human exploration plan that included the successful construction of an orbital space station, a permanent return to the Moon, and a mission to Mars. This enterprise became known as the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI). The president charged the newly reestablished National Space Council with providing concrete alternatives for meeting these objectives. To provide overall focus for the new initiative, Bush later set a thirty-year goal for a crewed landing on Mars. Within a few short years after this Kennedyesque announcement, however, the initiative had faded into history the victim of a flawed policy process and a political war fought on several different fronts. The story of this failed initiative was a tale of organizational, cultural, and personal confrontation by key protagonists and critical battles. Some commentators have argued that SEI was doomed to fail, due primarily to the immense budgetary pressures facing the nation during the early 1990s. The central thesis of Mars Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Space Exploration Initiative suggests, however, that failure was not predetermined. Instead, it was the result of a deeply flawed decision-making process that failed to develop (or even consider) policy options that may have been politically acceptable given the existing political environment.
Digital Apollo
Author: David A. MindellPublisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262516101
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 376
Book Description
The incredible story of how human pilots and automated systems worked together to achieve the ultimate achievement in flight—the lunar landings of NASA’s Apollo program As Apollo 11’s Lunar Module descended toward the moon under automatic control, a program alarm in the guidance computer’s software nearly caused a mission abort. Neil Armstrong responded by switching off the automatic mode and taking direct control. He stopped monitoring the computer and began flying the spacecraft, relying on skill to land it and earning praise for a triumph of human over machine. In Digital Apollo, engineer-historian David Mindell takes this famous moment as a starting point for an exploration of the relationship between humans and computers in the Apollo program. In each of the six Apollo landings, the astronaut in command seized control from the computer and landed with his hand on the stick. Mindell recounts the story of astronauts’ desire to control their spacecraft in parallel with the history of the Apollo Guidance Computer. From the early days of aviation through the birth of spaceflight, test pilots and astronauts sought to be more than “spam in a can” despite the automatic controls, digital computers, and software developed by engineers. Digital Apollo examines the design and execution of each of the six Apollo moon landings, drawing on transcripts and data telemetry from the flights, astronaut interviews, and NASA’s extensive archives. Mindell’s exploration of how human pilots and automated systems worked together to achieve the ultimate in flight—a lunar landing—traces and reframes the debate over the future of humans and automation in space. The results have implications for any venture in which human roles seem threatened by automated systems, whether it is the work at our desktops or the future of exploration.
Flights of Discovery
Author: Lane E. WallacePublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Government publications
Languages : en
Pages : 214
Book Description