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Apollo Abort Guidance System

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The Apollo Abort Guidance System ( AGS , also known as Abort Guidance Section ) was a backup computer system providing an abort capability in the event of failure of the Lunar Module's primary guidance system ( Apollo PGNCS ) during descent, ascent or rendezvous. As an abort system, it did not support guidance for a lunar landing.

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122-479: The AGS was designed by TRW independently of the development of the Apollo Guidance Computer and PGNCS . It was the first navigation system to use a strapdown Inertial Measurement Unit rather than a gimbaled gyrostabilized IMU (as used by PGNCS ). Although not as accurate as the gimbaled IMU, it provided satisfactory accuracy with the help of the optical telescope and rendezvous radar . It

244-457: A gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer (GC-MS) and a combined biological instrument. TRW designed and built the following space observatories : The teams developing the following observatories continued their work as part of Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems: TRW Systems Group designed and manufactured the Vela series of nuclear detection satellites which monitored the 1963 establishment of

366-642: A TRW subsidiary, was a record label active from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s. Christopher John Boyce was a TRW employee convicted of selling security secrets to the Soviet Union via the Soviet embassy in Mexico City in the mid-1970s. Boyce and his accomplice, Andrew Daulton Lee , were the subjects of the best-selling 1979 Robert Lindsey book The Falcon and the Snowman , and the 1985 film of

488-467: A US$ 5.9 billion hostile bid for TRW. Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems , and General Dynamics contended for the company with Northrop's increased bid of US$ 7.8 billion ultimately being accepted on July 1, 2002. Soon afterward, the automotive assets of LucasVarity and TRW's own automotive group were sold to The Blackstone Group as TRW Automotive . A portion of TRW's Lyndhurst campus was developed as Legacy Village . The headquarters building became home to

610-415: A cabin that housed the crew and carried equipment needed for atmospheric reentry and splashdown ; and the cylindrical service module which provided propulsion, electrical power and storage for various consumables required during a mission. An umbilical connection transferred power and consumables between the two modules. Just before reentry of the command module on the return home, the umbilical connection

732-607: A division of Ramo-Wooldridge Corp., designed and produced the identical payloads for Pioneer 0 , Pioneer 1 and Pioneer 2 . These were intended to orbit and photograph the Moon , but launch vehicle problems prevented this. NASA launched Pioneer 1 as its first spacecraft on 11 October 1958. It set a distance record from Earth, and provided data on the extent of Earth's radiation belts . Pioneer 10 and 11 were nearly identical spacecraft, designed and fabricated by TRW Systems Group. They were optimized for ruggedness since they were

854-515: A flashing rendezvous beacon visible from 54 nautical miles (100 km) away as a navigation aid for rendezvous with the LM. The SM was connected to the CM using three tension ties and six compression pads. The tension ties were stainless steel straps bolted to the CM's aft heat shield. It remained attached to the command module throughout most of the mission, until being jettisoned just prior to re-entry into

976-414: A former Apple program manager, publicized concerns that the site had not been properly tested since 2015 after receiving an email from Apple notifying employees of forthcoming vapor intrusion testing. An EPA study in 2019 had confirmed the previous remedies effective, but Gjøvik told TechCrunch cracks in the floor were exposing employees to carcinogenic fumes. She filed a whistleblower complaint with

1098-498: A large pressurized auxiliary orbital module where the crew would live and work for weeks at a time. They would perform space station-type activities in the module, while later versions would use the module to carry cargo to space stations. The spacecraft was to service the Project Olympus (LORL), a foldable rotating space station launched on a single Saturn V . Later versions would be used on circumlunar flights, and would be

1220-516: A mile along Cleveland's Euclid Avenue. It employed over 16,000 workers at the peak of WW II production. As jet aircraft replaced piston-engined aircraft, Thompson Products became a major manufacturer of turbine blades for jet engines. In 1950, Simon Ramo and Dean Wooldridge while working for Hughes Aircraft , led the development of the Falcon radar-guided missile , among other projects. They grew frustrated with Howard Hughes ' management, and formed

1342-755: A mysterious apparent nuclear test now called the Vela incident . First launched in 1970, the company built all twenty-three reconnaissance satellites in the Defense Support Program (DSP), which are the principal components of the Satellite Early Warning System currently used by the United States. These are operated by the Air Force Space Command , and they detect missile or spacecraft launches and nuclear explosions using sensors that detect

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1464-480: A pore seal, a moisture barrier (a white reflective coating), and a silver Mylar thermal coating that looks like aluminum foil. The heat shield varied in thickness from 2 inches (5.1 cm) in the aft portion (the base of the capsule, which faced forward during reentry) to 0.5 inches (1.3 cm) in the crew compartment and forward portions. The Total weight of the shield was about 3,000 pounds (1,400 kg). The 1-foot-11-inch (0.58 m)-tall forward compartment

1586-720: A result, after a major LM descent engine burn two hours past its closest approach to the Moon to shorten the trip home, the AGS was used for most of the return, including two mid-course corrections. TRW Inc. TRW Inc. was an American corporation involved in a variety of businesses, mainly aerospace , electronics , automotive , and credit reporting . It was a pioneer in multiple fields including electronic components, integrated circuits, computers, software and systems engineering . TRW built many spacecraft , including Pioneer 1 , Pioneer 10 , and several space-based observatories . It

1708-402: A so-called 'soft dock' state and enabled the pitch and yaw movements in the two vehicles to subside. Excess movement in the vehicles during the 'hard dock' process could cause damage to the docking ring and put stress on the upper tunnel. A depressed locking trigger link at each latch allowed a spring-loaded spool to move forward, maintaining the toggle linkage in an over-center locked position. In

1830-454: Is also found in household cleaners. As a result of pipe and tank degradation, the tanks leaked into the ground, resulting in contaminated soil and groundwater. TCE was later determined to be toxic to humans at high concentrations. In 2013, The Atlantic referred to the site as a "paved-over environmental disaster zone". In the 1980s, the US introduced the federal Superfund program to clean up

1952-634: Is enough. The TRW-6425 design was later bought from Oerlikon -Bührle, it was improved and manufactured as the Oerlikon KBA 25 mm. The Ramo-Wooldridge Corp formed Pacific Semiconductors in June 1954, under the leadership of Harper North who had been head of electronics R+D at Hughes Aircraft Company . The funding for this endeavor from Thompson Products was about ten times their initial investment in Ramo-Wooldridge. The original goal

2074-526: Is made to agree with sign of Accumulator A. LRS N (Long Right Shift) : Similar to LLS , but the contents are shifted right N places. TRA (Transfer) : The next instruction is taken from memory. TSQ (Transfer and Set Q) : The contents of the Q Register are replaced with an address field set to one greater than the location of the TSQ instruction. Next instruction is taken from memory. TMI (Transfer on Minus Accumulator) : The next instruction

2196-495: Is now part of ZF Friedrichshafen . TRW veterans were instrumental in the founding of corporations like SpaceX . In 1953, the company was recruited to lead the development of the United States' first ICBM . Starting with the initial design by Convair , the multi-corporate team launched Atlas in 1957. It flew its full range in 1958 and was then adapted to fly the Mercury astronauts into orbit. TRW also led development of

2318-530: Is taken from memory if the contents of the Accumulator A are negative. Otherwise the next instruction is taken in sequence. TOV (Transfer on Overflow) : If the overflow indicator is set, the next instruction is taken from memory. AXT N (Address to Index) : The Index Register is set to N. TIX (Test Index and Transfer) : If the Index Register is positive, it is decremented by one and

2440-441: The g -force experienced by the astronauts, permitted a reasonable amount of directional control and allowed the capsule's splashdown point to be targeted within a few miles. At 24,000 feet (7,300 m), the forward heat shield was jettisoned using four pressurized-gas compression springs. The drogue parachutes were then deployed, slowing the spacecraft to 125 miles per hour (201 kilometres per hour). At 10,700 feet (3,300 m)

2562-567: The Aerojet-General company to start developing the engine, resulting in a thrust level twice what was needed to accomplish the lunar orbit rendezvous (LOR) mission mode officially chosen in July of that year. The engine was actually used for mid-course corrections between the Earth and Moon, and to place the spacecraft into and out of lunar orbit. It also served as a retrorocket to perform

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2684-603: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration against Apple, which was investigated and dismissed. A site evaluation by the EPA done in August 2021 found that the likelihood for vapor intrusion was low and not expected. Based on field testing done between April 24, 2023 and May 5, 2023, the EPA concluded that vapor intrusion was being prevented. Apollo CSM The Apollo command and service module ( CSM )

2806-745: The Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation in September 1953, with the financial support of Thompson Products. The detonation of a thermonuclear bomb by the Soviet Union spurred Trevor Gardner to form the Teapot Committee in October 1953. Chaired by John von Neumann , its purpose was to study the development of ballistic missiles , including ICBMs. Ramo and Wooldridge were committee members, and Ramo-Wooldridge Corp. became

2928-541: The Titan missile, which was later adapted to fly the Gemini missions. The company served the U.S. Air Force as systems engineers on all subsequent ICBM development efforts but TRW never produced any missile hardware because of the conflict of interest . In 1960, Congress spurred the formation of the non-profit Aerospace Corporation to provide systems engineering support to the U.S. government but TRW continued to guide

3050-466: The fuel cell gauges and controls, the electrical and battery controls, and the communications controls. Flanking the sides of the main panel were sets of smaller control panels. On the left side were a circuit breaker panel, audio controls, and the SCS power controls. On the right were additional circuit breakers and a redundant audio control panel, along with the environmental control switches. In total,

3172-621: The infrared emissions from these intense sources of heat. During Desert Storm , for example, DSP satellites were able to detect the launches of Iraqi Scud missiles and provide timely warnings to civilians and military forces in Israel and Saudi Arabia . The initial seven Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) were built by TRW to improve communication coverage for the Space Shuttle , International Space Station (ISS), and U.S. military satellites. When first launched in 1983,

3294-452: The transposition, docking, and extraction maneuver at the beginning of the translunar coast. The docking mechanism was a non-androgynous system, consisting of a probe located in the nose of the CSM, which connected to the drogue , a truncated cone located on the lunar module. The probe was extended like a scissor jack to capture the drogue on initial contact, known as soft docking . Then

3416-596: The AGS was subsequently used to acquire attitude control. The AGS played an important role in the safe return of Apollo 13 after an oxygen tank explosion left the Service Module crippled and forced the astronauts to use the Lunar Module as a "lifeboat." Supplies of electrical power and water on the LM were limited and the Primary Guidance and Navigation System used too much water for cooling. As

3538-555: The APS burn. An incorrect switch setting leaving AGS in Auto rather than Attitude Hold mode led to a prompt and pronounced deviation in attitude moments before staging. The situation was quickly brought under control. The next use of the AGS was during the lunar ascent phase of the Apollo 11 mission, when the LM crew performed a sequence of rendezvous maneuvers that resulted in gimbal lock ;

3660-556: The Accumulator A are placed in output register specified by address. First design ideas of the Abort Guidance System did not include the use of the computer but rather a sequencer without any navigation capability. This would be adequate to put the Lunar Module into lunar orbit where the crew would wait for rescue by the Apollo CSM . Later design included a digital computer to provide some autonomy. The AGS software

3782-619: The Apollo 204 Review Board, it was decided to terminate the crewed Block I phase and redefine Block II to incorporate the review board's recommendations . Block II incorporated a revised CM heat shield design, which was tested on the uncrewed Apollo 4 and Apollo 6 flights, so the first all-up Block II spacecraft flew on the first crewed mission, Apollo 7 . The two blocks were essentially similar in overall dimensions, but several design improvements resulted in weight reduction in Block II. Also,

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3904-593: The Block I service module propellant tanks were slightly larger than in Block II. The Apollo 1 spacecraft weighed approximately 45,000 pounds (20,000 kg), while the Block II Apollo 7 weighed 36,400 lb (16,500 kg). (These two Earth orbital craft were lighter than the craft which later went to the Moon, as they carried propellant in only one set of tanks, and did not carry the high-gain S-band antenna.) In

4026-521: The CM and faster break-up on re-entry. The service propulsion system ( SPS ) engine was originally designed to lift the CSM off the surface of the Moon in the direct ascent mission mode, The engine selected was the AJ10-137 , which used Aerozine 50 as fuel and nitrogen tetroxide (N 2 O 4 ) as oxidizer to produce 20,500 lbf (91 kN) of thrust. A contract was signed in April 1962 for

4148-472: The CM reaction control subsystem; water tanks; the crushable ribs of the impact attenuation system; and a number of instruments. The CM-SM umbilical, the point where wiring and plumbing ran from one module to the other, was also in the aft compartment. The panels of the heat shield covering the aft compartment were removable for maintenance of the equipment before flight. The components of the ELS were housed around

4270-533: The CSM umbilical cables . The command module was built in North American's factory in Downey, California , and consisted of two basic structures joined together: the inner structure (pressure shell) and the outer structure. The inner structure was an aluminum sandwich construction consisting of a welded aluminum inner skin, adhesively bonded aluminum honeycomb core, and outer face sheet. The thickness of

4392-548: The Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute. The TRW headquarters building was demolished in 2023. Bill Gates , the founder of Microsoft , says that he got "his first big break" at age fifteen, debugging energy-grid control software for TRW. "It was kind of scary", Gates said, realizing the things the program was going to help operate. "This thing needs to work". TRW Inc. was active in the development of missile systems and spacecraft, notably,

4514-509: The EPA had not been properly monitoring the site and notififying residents of a possible health issue. The EPA litigated with the responsible parties in order update its notification and testing measures to warn residents about possible exposure as early as possible and keeping people away from any unsafe areas. As of 2016 , the site is owned by GI Partners, an investment company, and has been leased by Apple Inc. since 2015 for research and development as of 2021 . The octagonal glass building

4636-413: The EPA, and geologist Michael Calhoun. In 2014 and 2015, a newly required vapor intrusion test of the surrounding residential area, including homes, apartment buildings, and four schools, showed unacceptable levels of TCE. A 2011 study had revealed TCE caused birth defects and cancer by all pathways of exposure. In 2014, the region's congressional representative Anna Eshoo expressed concerns that

4758-476: The Earth's water cycle in the oceans, lakes, atmosphere, polar ice caps , and vegetation . TRW designed and built the descent engine or (LMDE) for the Apollo lunar lander . Due to the need for a soft landing on the Moon, it was the first throttleable engine for crewed space flight . This, and the requirements for high thrust , low weight , and crushability (in case of landing on a large rock), earned surprising praise from NASA's history pages, considering

4880-506: The Earth's atmosphere. At jettison, the CM umbilical connections were cut using a pyrotechnic-activated guillotine assembly. Following jettison, the SM aft translation thrusters automatically fired continuously to distance it from the CM, until either the RCS fuel or the fuel cell power was depleted. The roll thrusters were also fired for five seconds to make sure it followed a different trajectory from

5002-618: The ICBM efforts. TRW originated in 1901 with the Cleveland Cap Screw Company , founded by David Kurtz and four other Cleveland residents. Their initial products were bolts with heads electrically welded to the shafts. In 1904, a welder named Charles E. Thompson adapted their process to making automobile engine valves and by 1915, the company was the largest valve producer in the United States . Charles Thompson

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5124-607: The Offy engine design with his partner Louis Meyer in 1946 and won the Indianapolis 500 twenty-seven times, more than any other engine design. During the period leading up to World War II , through the end of the Korean war , Thompson Products was a key manufacturer of component parts for aircraft engines, including cylinder valves . The TAPCO plant, owned by the U.S. government but operated by Thompson Products, extended for almost

5246-460: The RW-300 for sales in 1959, one of the first "all-transistor" computers with a power supply that used vacuum tubes . The computer was targeted at industrial control applications, with 1024 analog inputs multiplexed to a 1.9K sample/s 10-bit analog-to-digital converter which was transparent to the programmer. It weighed about 600 lb (270 kg). The real-time operating system

5368-714: The TDRS satellites were the largest, most sophisticated communications satellites built at the time. The seventh vehicle in the series was ordered as a replacement when TDRS-B was lost in the Challenger accident . Launched in 2002, TRW produced the Aqua spacecraft based on their modular standardized satellite bus . A joint project of the U.S. Global Change Research Program ( NASA ), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ( JAXA ), and National Institute for Space Research (INPE), Brazil , Aqua delivers 750 Gigabytes per day detailing

5490-415: The air. Jared Blumenfeld, the former EPA director, said that TCE released in the air after the cleanup efforts reduces the concentrations to levels that eliminate health risks. Blumenfeld said that airborne TCE is not ideal, but the cleanup has reduced the toxins by 90% as of 2013 , according to Max Shahbacian, the project's lead at California State Water Resources Control Board before it was transferred to

5612-569: The base, and a height of 11 feet 5 inches (3.48 m) including the docking probe and dish-shaped aft heat shield. The forward compartment contained two reaction control system thrusters, the docking tunnel, and the Earth Landing System. The inner pressure vessel housed the crew accommodation, equipment bays, controls and displays, and many spacecraft systems. The aft compartment contained 10 reaction control engines and their related propellant tanks, freshwater tanks, and

5734-427: The basis for a direct ascent lunar spacecraft as well as used on interplanetary missions. In late 1960, NASA called on U.S. industry to propose designs for the vehicle. On May 25, 1961 President John F. Kennedy announced the Moon landing goal before 1970, which immediately rendered NASA's Olympus Station plans obsolete. When NASA awarded the initial Apollo contract to North American Aviation on November 28, 1961, it

5856-478: The board of Space Technology Laboratories (STL), the division which continued to support the Air Force ICBM efforts. Other aerospace companies believed TRW's Air Force advisory role granted it unfair access to their technologies and in September 1959, Congress issued a report recommending that STL be converted to a non-profit organization. With nearly half of STL's employees, The Aerospace Corporation

5978-437: The budget cuts, forcing responsible parties to pay for the cleanup. Scott Pruitt, Trump's head of the EPA threatened to cut budgets again for the enforcement. In 2019, the EPA and Philips Semiconductors agreed to a consent decree, with Northrop Grumman as a signatory, to fund the remaining cleanup and monitoring of the site, along with two nearby sites collectively known as the "Triple Site". In March 2021, Ashley Gjøvik ,

6100-579: The cafeteria of Building S. William Shatner had previously filmed at the TRW campus for the Outer Limits episode "Cold Hands, Warm Heart". In the episode, he plays an astronaut for "Project Vulcan". The 1967 sci-fi film Countdown , also filmed at the TRW Space Park. The TRW building is supposedly one of the credit company buildings demolished in the 1999 film Fight Club . This is because at

6222-506: The center piston. In a temperature degraded condition, a single motor release operation was done manually in the lunar module by depressing the locking spool through an open hole in the probe heads, while release from the CSM was done by rotating a release handle at the back of the probe to rotate the motor torque shaft manually. When the command and lunar modules separated for the last time, the probe and forward docking ring were pyrotechnically separated, leaving all docking equipment attached to

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6344-451: The command module panels included 24 instruments, 566 switches, 40 event indicators, and 71 lights. The three crew couches were constructed from hollow steel tubing and covered in a heavy, fireproof cloth known as Armalon. The leg pans of the two outer couches could be folded in a variety of positions, while the hip pan of the center couch could be disconnected and laid on the aft bulkhead. One rotation and one translation hand controller

6466-598: The complexity of the lunar missions: "The lunar module descent engine probably was the biggest challenge and the most outstanding technical development of Apollo". This engine was used on Apollo 13 to achieve free return trajectory and make a minor course correction after damage to the Service Module . After the Apollo program Moon landings, the LMDE was further developed into the TRW TR-201 engine. This engine

6588-500: The conclusion of the Apollo program and during 1973–1974, three CSMs ferried astronauts to the orbital Skylab space station. Finally in 1975, the last flown CSM docked with the Soviet craft Soyuz 19 as part of the international Apollo–Soyuz Test Project . Concepts of an advanced crewed spacecraft started before the Moon landing goal was announced. The three-person vehicle was to be mainly for orbital use around Earth. It would include

6710-440: The contents of memory are set to zero. DVP (Divide) : The contents of Accumulator A and Register Q that form a dividend are divided by the contents of memory. The quotient is placed in Accumulator A and rounded unless the rounding would cause overflow. COM (Complement Accumulator) : The contents of Accumulator A are replaced with their two's complement. If the contents of the Accumulator A are positive, zero or minus one,

6832-490: The contents of memory. The most significant part of the product is placed in the Accumulator A, the least significant part is placed in Register Q. MPR (Multiply and Round) : Identical to MPY instruction, the most significant part of the product in Accumulator A is rounded by adding one to the contents of Accumulator A if bit 1 of Q Register equals one. MPZ (Multiply and Zero) : Identical to MPR instruction,

6954-884: The contents remain unchanged. CLA (Clear and Add) : The Accumulator A is loaded from memory. The contents of memory remain unchanged. CLZ (Clear, Add and Zero) : Similar to CLA instruction; the contents of memory are set to zero. LDQ (Load Q Register) : The Q Register is loaded with contents of memory. The contents of memory remain unchanged. STO (Store Accumulator) : The contents of Accumulator A are stored in memory. The contents of Accumulator A remain unchanged. STQ (Store Q Register) : The contents of Q Register are stored in memory. The contents of Q Register remain unchanged. ALS N (Arithmetic Left Shift) : The contents of Accumulator A are shifted left N places. LLS N (Long Left Shift) : The contents of Accumulator A and bits 1 - 17 of Q Register are shifted left as one register N places. The sign of Q Register

7076-454: The country's toxic waste sites. The site TRW (now Northrop Grumman) is responsible for is called the ' TRW Microwave site '. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) worked with TRW to treat the water with ultraviolet light and oxygenation and excavate the contaminated soil. In 1994, a public health study determined that the groundwater was still unacceptably contaminated, which can cause vapor intrusion . The EPA says

7198-460: The decision to design two versions of the CSM: Block I was to be used for uncrewed missions and a single crewed Earth orbit flight ( Apollo 1 ), while the more advanced Block II was designed for use with the lunar module. The Apollo 1 flight was cancelled after a cabin fire killed the crew and destroyed their command module during a launch rehearsal test. Corrections of the problems which caused

7320-409: The deorbit burn for Earth orbital flights. The propellants were pressure-fed to the engine by 39.2 cubic feet (1.11 m ) of gaseous helium at 3,600 pounds per square inch (25 MPa), carried in two 40-inch (1.0 m) diameter spherical tanks. The exhaust nozzle measured 152.82 inches (3.882 m) long and 98.48 inches (2.501 m) wide at the base. It was mounted on two gimbals to keep

7442-441: The drogues were jettisoned and the pilot parachutes, which pulled out the mains, were deployed. These slowed the CM to 22 miles per hour (35 kilometres per hour) for splashdown. The portion of the capsule that first contacted the water surface contained four crushable ribs to further mitigate the force of impact. The command module could safely parachute to an ocean landing with only two parachutes deployed (as occurred on Apollo 15 ),

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7564-478: The early development of the U.S. ICBM program under the leadership of the Teapot Committee led by John von Neumann . TRW pioneered systems engineering, creating the ubiquitous N chart and the modern functional flow block diagram . It served as the primary source of systems engineering for the United States Air Force ballistic missile programs. Space Technology Laboratories (STL), then

7686-469: The early stage of American research, TRW was one of the companies involved in the development of automatic guns of the Bushmaster program, where, under the leadership of engineer Eugene Stoner , the author of the famous M16 rifle, a 25 mm automatic cannon was developed under the internal designation TRW model 6425 , an ordinary system with automatic gas venting and locking the barrel with a rotary bolt

7808-491: The environmental control system). On the flight of Apollo 13 , the EPS was disabled by an explosive rupture of one oxygen tank, which punctured the second tank and led to the loss of all oxygen. After the accident, a third oxygen tank was added to obviate operation below 50% tank capacity. That allowed the elimination of the tank's internal stirring-fan equipment, which had contributed to the failure. Also starting with Apollo 14 ,

7930-457: The fire were applied to the Block II spacecraft, which was used for all crewed spaceflights. Nineteen CSMs were launched into space. Of these, nine flew humans to the Moon between 1968 and 1972, and another two performed crewed test flights in low Earth orbit , all as part of the Apollo program. Before these, another four CSMs had flown as uncrewed Apollo tests, of which two were suborbital flights and another two were orbital flights . Following

8052-411: The first man-made objects to pass through the asteroid belt and Jupiter's radiation belt. Simplicity, redundancy , and use of proven components were essential. As NASA's first all-atomic powered spacecraft, these used plutonium-238 units developed by Teledyne Isotopes . Pioneer 10 carried eleven instruments and Pioneer 11 carried twelve for investigating Jupiter and Saturn , respectively. Data

8174-805: The following characteristics: The AEA has the following registers: Other registers include: The AEA instruction format consisted of five-bit instruction code , index bit and a 12-bit address. The computer had 27 instructions: ADD : The contents of memory location are added to Accumulator A. The contents of the memory location remain unchanged. ADZ (Add and Zero) : The contents of memory are added to Accumulator A. The contents of memory are set to zero. SUB (Subtract) : The contents of memory are subtracted from Accumulator A. The contents of memory remain unchanged. SUZ (Subtract and Zero) : The contents of memory are subtracted from Accumulator A. The contents of memory are set to zero. MPY (Multiply) : The contents of Accumulator A are multiplied by

8296-436: The following elements: There are few actual descriptions of the use of the AGS, as a landing abort was never needed during the Apollo missions. There were, however, four cases in which the AGS was used. Its first use was for testing of the Lunar Module descent stage in Earth orbital flight during the Apollo 9 mission. It was used again in the Apollo 10 mission, following separation of the Lunar Module descent stage prior to

8418-431: The forward docking tunnel. The forward compartment was separated from the central by a bulkhead and was divided into four 90-degree wedges. The ELS consisted of two drogue parachutes with mortars , three main parachutes , three pilot parachutes to deploy the mains, three inflation bags for uprighting the capsule if necessary, a sea recovery cable, a dye marker, and a swimmer umbilical. The command module's center of mass

8540-415: The forward heat shield was jettisoned to expose the Earth landing equipment and permit deployment of the parachutes. The 1-foot-8-inch (0.51 m)-tall aft compartment was located around the periphery of the command module at its widest part, just forward of (above) the aft heat shield. The compartment was divided into 24 bays containing 10 reaction control engines; the fuel, oxidizer, and helium tanks for

8662-404: The honeycomb varied from about 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) at the base to about 0.25 inches (0.64 cm) at the forward access tunnel. This inner structure was the pressurized crew compartment. The outer structure was made of stainless steel brazed-honeycomb brazed between steel alloy face sheets. It varied in thickness from 0.5 inch to 2.5 inches. Part of the area between the inner and outer shells

8784-452: The inside of an 8-by-2.75-foot (2.44 by 0.84 m) skin panel. The primary fuel (MMH) tank contained 69.1 pounds (31.3 kg); the secondary fuel tank contained 45.2 pounds (20.5 kg); the primary oxidizer tank contained 137.0 pounds (62.1 kg), and the secondary oxidizer tank contained 89.2 pounds (40.5 kg). The propellant tanks were pressurized from a single tank containing 1.35 pounds (0.61 kg) of liquid helium. Back flow

8906-591: The lead contractor of the resulting ICBM development effort, reporting to the United States Air Force . With continued backing from Thompson Products, Ramo-Wooldridge diversified into computers and electronic components , founding Pacific Semiconductors in 1954. They also produced scientific spacecraft such as Pioneer 1 . Thompson Products and Ramo-Wooldridge merged in October 1958 to form Thompson Ramo Wooldridge Inc., unofficially known as "TRW". In February 1959, Jimmy Doolittle became chairman of

9028-461: The lunar module. In the event of an abort during launch from Earth, the same system would have explosively jettisoned the docking ring and probe from the CM as it separated from the boost protective cover. The central pressure vessel of the command module was its sole habitable compartment. It had an interior volume of 210 cubic feet (5.9 m ) and housed the main control panels, crew seats, guidance and navigation systems, food and equipment lockers,

9150-470: The module's pressure vessel. The fused silica outer pane served as both a debris shield and as part of the heat shield. Each pane had an anti-reflective coating and a blue-red reflective coating on the inner surface. Sources: The service module was an unpressurized cylindrical structure with a diameter of 12 feet 10 inches (3.91 m) and 14 feet 10 inches (4.52 m) long. The service propulsion engine nozzle and heat shield increased

9272-433: The most efficient way to keep the program on track was to proceed with the development in two versions: By January 1964, North American started presenting Block II design details to NASA. Block I spacecraft were used for all uncrewed Saturn 1B and Saturn V test flights. Initially two crewed flights were planned, but this was reduced to one in late 1966. This mission, designated AS-204 but named Apollo 1 by its flight crew,

9394-399: The next instruction is taken from memory. DLY (Delay) : Execution stops until a timing signal is received. The next instruction is taken from memory. INP (Input) : The contents of input register specified by address are placed in Accumulator A. The input register is either set to zero or remains unchanged (depending upon the selected register). OUT (Output) : The contents of

9516-507: The nuclear Partial Test Ban Treaty . Subsequently, they produced the Advanced Vela series, first launched in 1967, which could detect nuclear air bursts using instruments actually called bhangmeters . It had the first dual-spin attitude control system with the total system momentum controlled to zero. The Vela and Advanced Vela satellites were the first to alert astronomers to the presence of gamma-ray bursts . They also reported

9638-419: The pressure between the tunnel and the CM so the hatch could be removed. The unified crew hatch (UCH) measured 29 inches (74 cm) high, 34 inches (86 cm) wide, and weighed 225 pounds (102 kg). It was operated by a pump handle, which drove a ratchet mechanism to open or close fifteen latches simultaneously. Apollo's mission required the LM to dock with the CSM on return from the Moon, and also in

9760-637: The primary flight controls, and the main FDAI (Flight Director Attitude Indicator). The CM pilot served as navigator, so his control panel (center) included the Guidance and Navigation computer controls, the caution and warning indicator panel, the event timer, the Service Propulsion System and RCS controls, and the environmental control system controls. The LM pilot served as systems engineer, so his control panel (right-hand side) included

9882-471: The probe cylinder body engaged and retained the probe center piston in the retracted position. Before vehicle separation in lunar orbit, manual cocking of the twelve ring latches was accomplished. The separating force from the internal pressure in the tunnel area was then transmitted from the ring latches to the probe and drogue. In undocking, the release of the capture latches was accomplished by electrically energizing tandem-mounted DC rotary solenoids located in

10004-412: The probe was retracted to pull the vehicles together and establish a firm connection, known as "hard docking". The mechanism was specified by NASA to have the following functions: The probe head located in the CSM was self-centering and gimbal-mounted to the probe piston. As the probe head engaged in the opening of the drogue socket, three spring-loaded latches depressed and engaged. These latches allowed

10126-401: The production of computers and monitors . Thompson Ramo Wooldridge officially became TRW Inc. in July 1965. Free of anti-competitive restrictions short of ICBM hardware, STL was renamed TRW Systems Group that same month. In 1968, the company entered the credit reporting industry by purchasing Credit Data Corporation and renaming it TRW Information Systems and Services Inc. The Credit Data group

10248-488: The reaction control system (RCS) computer, power distribution block, ECS controller, separation controller, and components for the high-gain antenna, and included eight EPS radiators and the umbilical connection arm containing the main electrical and plumbing connections to the CM. The fairing externally contained a retractable forward-facing spotlight ; an EVA floodlight to aid the command module pilot in SIM film retrieval; and

10370-541: The same title. Representatives from Space Technology Laboratories (STL) present their ICBM expertise to Don and Pete in Mad Men season 2 episode " The Jet Set ". The Star Trek: The Original Series season 1 episode " Operation -- Annihilate! " (13 April 1967) was filmed on the then-TRW campus (now Northrop Grumman's Space Park ) in Redondo Beach, California . The two sets of stairs shown are those leading to

10492-495: The site has institutional controls to protect people from contact with affected water. Drinking water in the area comes from Hetch Hetchy and municipal wells. In the 2000s, a bioremediation method developed by Stanford University using bacteria in molasses to naturally breakdown the TCE into harmless sub-compounds was implemented. Other measures included engineering vapor pathways to avoid direct human contact by releasing it into

10614-524: The specifications given below, unless otherwise noted, all weights given are for the Block II spacecraft. The total cost of the CSM for development and the units produced was $ 36.9  billion in 2016 dollars, adjusted from a nominal total of $ 3.7 billion using the NASA New Start Inflation Indices. The command module was a truncated cone ( frustum ) with a diameter of 12 feet 10 inches (3.91 m) across

10736-543: The third parachute being a safety precaution. The command module attitude control system consisted of twelve 93-pound-force (410 N) attitude control thrusters, ten of which were located in the aft compartment, plus two in the forward compartment. These were supplied by four tanks storing 270 pounds (120 kg) of monomethylhydrazine fuel and nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer, and pressurized by 1.1 pounds (0.50 kg) of helium stored at 4,150 pounds per square inch (28.6 MPa) in two tanks. The forward docking hatch

10858-787: The thrust vector aligned with the spacecraft's center of mass during SPS firings. The combustion chamber and pressurant tanks were housed in the central tunnel. Four clusters of four reaction control system (RCS) thrusters (known as "quads") were installed around the upper section of the SM every 90°. The sixteen-thruster arrangement provided rotation and translation control in all three spacecraft axes. Each R-4D thruster measured 12 inches (30 cm) long by 6 inches (15 cm) diameter, generated 100 pounds-force (440 N) of thrust, and used helium-fed monomethylhydrazine (MMH) as fuel and nitrogen tetroxide (NTO) as oxidizer. Each quad assembly measured 2.2 by 2.7 feet (0.67 by 0.82 m) and had its own fuel, oxidizer, and helium tanks mounted on

10980-685: The time the book was written, TRW was in the business of credit reporting. However, there is no TRW building in Delaware , where the demolition purportedly happens. TRW equipment/boxes can be seen stored and being unloaded in the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind during scenes filmed at Devils Tower. In the 1960s and 1970s, TRW stored trichloroethylene (TCE), a critical chemical for cooling and degreasing computer chips , in tanks deep underground in Sunnyvale, California for later use. TCE

11102-575: The total height to 24 feet 7 inches (7.49 m). The interior was a simple structure consisting of a central tunnel section 44 inches (1.1 m) in diameter, surrounded by six pie-shaped sectors. The sectors were topped by a forward bulkhead and fairing, separated by six radial beams, covered on the outside by four honeycomb panels, and supported by an aft bulkhead and engine heat shield. The sectors were not all equal 60° angles, but varied according to required size. The forward fairing measured 1 foot 11 inches (58 cm) long and housed

11224-411: The upper end of the lunar module tunnel, the drogue, which was constructed of 1-inch-thick aluminum honeycomb core, bonded front and back to aluminum face sheets, was the receiving end of the probe head capture latches. After the initial capture and stabilization of the vehicles, the probe was capable of exerting a closing force of 1,000 pounds-force (4.4 kN) to draw the vehicles together. This force

11346-402: The waste management system, and the docking tunnel. Dominating the forward section of the cabin was the crescent-shaped main display panel measuring nearly 7 feet (2.1 m) wide and 3 feet (0.91 m) tall. It was arranged into three panels, each emphasizing the duties of each crew member. The mission commander's panel (left side) included the velocity , attitude, and altitude indicators,

11468-655: Was #57 on the 1986 Fortune 500 list, and had 122,258 employees. The company was called Thompson Ramo Wooldridge Inc. , after the 1958 merger of the Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation and Thompson Products. This was later shortened to TRW. The company was founded in 1901 and lasted for just over a century until being acquired by Northrop Grumman in 2002. It spawned a variety of corporations, including Pacific Semiconductors, The Aerospace Corporation , Bunker-Ramo and Experian . Its automotive businesses were sold off by Northrop Grumman as TRW Automotive , which

11590-531: Was 57th on the Fortune 500 list of highest revenue American companies in 1986 and had 122,258 employees in 2000. It operated in 25 countries. On 3 February 1986, the TRW plant in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania , burned to the ground in an eight-alarm fire . The damage was estimated to be greater than US$ 10 million and was the most serious fire to date in the area. In February 2002, Northrop Grumman launched

11712-736: Was a wholly owned subsidiary formed to commercialize the integrated circuit technology the company had developed in support of its aerospace business. They produced some of the first commercially available digital signal processing ICs including the TDC1008 multiplier-accumulator . They also made the first 8-bit flash ADC IC, the TDC1007, resulting in an Emmy Award for analog/digital video conversion technology. TRW also pioneered gallium arsenide (GaAs) chip applications for local multipoint distribution service (LMDS) systems, radios, and satellite communications. Bel Canto Stereophonic Recordings,

11834-490: Was also a set of computations that had to be performed every 40 ms (engine commands, external signal sampling , attitude control , etc.). Other computations were performed every 2 seconds and these equations were divided into smaller groups so they could be recalculated during the remaining (i.e. unused) time of 20 ms segments (e.g. radar data processing, calculation of orbital parameters, computation of rendezvous sequence, calibration of IMU sensors, etc.) The software for AGS

11956-488: Was also lighter and smaller in size. The Abort Guidance System included the following components: The computer used was MARCO 4418 (MARCO stands for Man Rated Computer) whose dimensions were 5 by 8 by 23.75 inches (12.7 by 20.3 by 60.33 centimeters); it weighed 32.7 pounds (14.83 kg) and required 90 watts of power. Because the memory had a serial access it was slower than AGC, although some operations on AEA were performed as fast or faster than on AGC. The computer had

12078-451: Was filled with a layer of fiberglass insulation as additional heat protection. An ablative heat shield on the outside of the CM protected the capsule from the heat of reentry , which is sufficient to melt most metals. This heat shield was composed of phenolic formaldehyde resin . During reentry, this material charred and melted away, absorbing and carrying away the intense heat in the process. The heat shield has several outer coverings:

12200-471: Was formed in 1970 to compete with Dun & Bradstreet , from the combination of TRWISS and ESL Incorporated to specialize in technical strategic reconnaissance . TRW Information Systems and Services Division (Credit Data) was spun off in 1996 to form Experian . TRW acquired LucasVarity in 1999, then selling Lucas Diesel Systems to Delphi Automotive and Lucas Aerospace (then called TRW Aeronautical Systems) to Goodrich Corporation . The company

12322-705: Was formed in June 1960. It headed the Atlas conversion for Mercury , Titan conversion for Gemini , and provided ongoing systems engineering support for the government. The Air Force continued its ICBM work with TRW. Dean Wooldridge retired in January 1962 to become a professor at California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Simon Ramo became president of the Bunker-Ramo Corporation in January 1964, jointly owned by TRW and Martin Marietta for

12444-451: Was generated by gas pressure acting on the center piston within the probe cylinder. Piston retraction compressed the probe and interface seals and actuated the 12 automatic ring latches which were located radially around the inner surface of the CSM docking ring. The latches were manually re-cocked in the docking tunnel by an astronaut after each hard docking event (lunar missions required two dockings). An automatic extension latch attached to

12566-529: Was installed on the armrests of the left-hand couch. The translation controller was used by the crew member performing the transposition, docking, and extraction maneuver with the LM, usually the CM Pilot. The center and right-hand couches had duplicate rotational controllers. The couches were supported by eight shock-attenuating struts, designed to ease the impact of touchdown on water or, in case of an emergency landing, on solid ground. The contiguous cabin space

12688-431: Was mounted at the top of the docking tunnel. It was 30 inches (76 cm) in diameter and weighed 80 pounds (36 kg), constructed from two machined rings that were weld-joined to a brazed honeycomb panel. The exterior side was covered with 0.5-inch (13 mm) of insulation and a layer of aluminum foil. It was latched in six places and operated by a pump handle. The hatch contained a valve in its center, used to equalize

12810-540: Was named general manager of the company, which became Thompson Products in 1926. Their experimental hollow sodium -cooled valves aided Charles Lindbergh 's solo flight across the Atlantic. In 1937, Thompson Motor Products bought J.A. Drake and Sons (JADSON). The company made high-performance valves that were used in many racing engines of the day, including the Miller Offy . Dale Drake (son of J.A. Drake) bought

12932-410: Was offset a foot or so from the center of pressure (along the symmetry axis). This provided a rotational moment during reentry, angling the capsule and providing some lift (a lift to drag ratio of about 0.368 ). The capsule was then steered by rotating the capsule using thrusters; when no steering was required, the capsule was spun slowly, and the lift effects cancelled out. This system greatly reduced

13054-565: Was one of two principal components of the United States Apollo spacecraft , used for the Apollo program , which landed astronauts on the Moon between 1969 and 1972. The CSM functioned as a mother ship , which carried a crew of three astronauts and the second Apollo spacecraft, the Apollo Lunar Module , to lunar orbit, and brought the astronauts back to Earth. It consisted of two parts: the conical command module,

13176-551: Was organized into six equipment bays: The CM had five windows. The two side windows measured 9 inches (23 cm) square next to the left and right-hand couches. Two forward-facing triangular rendezvous windows measured 8 by 9 inches (20 by 23 cm), used to aid in rendezvous and docking with the LM. The circular hatch window was 9 inches (23 cm) in diameter located directly over the center couch. Each window assembly consisted of three thick panes of glass. The inner two panes, which were made of aluminosilicate , made up part of

13298-409: Was planned for launch on February 21, 1967. During a dress rehearsal for the launch on January 27, all three astronauts ( Gus Grissom , Ed White and Roger Chaffee ) were killed in a cabin fire, which revealed serious design, construction and maintenance shortcomings in Block I, many of which had been carried over into Block II command modules being built at the time. After a thorough investigation by

13420-530: Was prevented by a series of check valves, and back flow and ullage requirements were resolved by containing the fuel and oxidizer in Teflon bladders which separated the propellants from the helium pressurant. The four completely independent RCS clusters provided redundancy; only two adjacent functioning units were needed to allow complete attitude control. The lunar module used a similar four-quad arrangement of R-4D thruster engines for its RCS. Electrical power

13542-552: Was produced by three fuel cells , each measuring 44 inches (1.1 m) tall by 22 inches (0.56 m) in diameter and weighing 245 pounds (111 kg). These combined hydrogen and oxygen to generate electrical power, and produced drinkable water as a byproduct. The cells were fed by two hemispherical-cylindrical 31.75-inch (0.806 m) diameter tanks, each holding 29 pounds (13 kg) of liquid hydrogen , and two spherical 26-inch (0.66 m) diameter tanks, each holding 326 pounds (148 kg) of liquid oxygen (which also supplied

13664-559: Was renovated in 2014 and made available for occupancy in 2015. The safety of the site was verified by the EPA. In 2016, the Donald Trump administration cut funding the Superfund program by $ 330 million and EPA funding by more than 30%, resulting in a significant reduction in enforcement and testing. During his presidency, the EPA increased its use of consent decrees, or administrative settlements, to ensure progress continued under

13786-463: Was reviewed many times to find program errors and to reduce the size of the software. There are some known versions of the software that were used for uncrewed and crewed tests. The AGS User interface unit was named DEDA ( Data Entry and Display Assembly ). Its function was entry and readout of data from the AGS. Some of the system's functionality was built into DEDA unlike the DSKY used by AGC. DEDA had

13908-540: Was severed and the service module was cast off and allowed to burn up in the atmosphere. The CSM was developed and built for NASA by North American Aviation starting in November 1961. It was initially designed to land on the Moon atop a landing rocket stage and return all three astronauts on a direct-ascent mission, which would not use a separate lunar module, and thus had no provisions for docking with another spacecraft. This, plus other required design changes, led to

14030-450: Was still assumed the lunar landing would be achieved by direct ascent rather than by lunar orbit rendezvous . Therefore, design proceeded without a means of docking the command module to a lunar excursion module (LEM) . But the change to lunar orbit rendezvous, plus several technical obstacles encountered in some subsystems (such as environmental control), soon made it clear that substantial redesign would be required. In 1963, NASA decided

14152-466: Was the area outside the inner pressure shell in the nose of the capsule, located around the forward docking tunnel and covered by the forward heat shield. The compartment was divided into four 90-degree segments that contained Earth landing equipment (all the parachutes, recovery antennas and beacon light, and sea recovery sling), two reaction control thrusters, and the forward heat shield release mechanism. At about 25,000 feet (7,600 m) during reentry,

14274-612: Was the electronics industry standard for two decades, was invented by TRW's James L. Buie in 1961. In 1965, engineers Don Nelson and Dick Pick at TRW developed the Generalized Information Retrieval Language and System, for use by the U.S. Army to control the inventory of Cheyenne helicopter parts. This developed into the Pick Database Management System which is still in use as of 2016. TRW LSI Products, Inc.

14396-529: Was to produce the recently invented transistor for commercial sales. In 1957, Howard Sachar and Sanford "Sandy" Barnes invented the Varicap electronic component (also known as the varactor diode) at Pacific Semiconductors. This device reduced the physical size of radio tuners and eliminated the need for moving mechanical parts. This simplified the implementation of remote control TV tuners. Sachar and Barnes were awarded an Emmy in 2007. The company manufactured

14518-573: Was transmitted back to Earth at 8 watts , 128 bytes/s at Jupiter, and 1 byte/s from further out. Pioneer 10 was the first man-made object to pass the planetary orbits and its last telemetry was received in 2002, thirty years after launch. TRW Systems Group designed and built the instrument package which performed the Martian biological experiments , searching for life aboard the two Viking Landers launched in 1975. The 15.5 kg (34 lb) system performed four experiments on Martian soil using

14640-619: Was used in the second stage Delta-P of the Delta launch vehicle for 77 launches between 1972–1988. At the turn of 1964-65, the United States started the ambitious Bushmaster program to create small-caliber assault guns for arming promising infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) of the American Army. The result of this program was the creation of a whole series of automatic cannons with an external automatic drive in caliber from 25 to 40 mm, which received their own general name Bushmaster . At

14762-638: Was written by John Neblett, and was the intellectual precursor of the RSX-11 operating system for the PDP-11 . The TRW-130 computer was introduced in 1961, and designated the AN/UYK-1 by the U.S. Navy as part of its pre-GPS TRANSIT (NAVSAT) satellite-based location system . It used Doppler shifts to compute a location in about 15 minutes, and had rounded corners to allow installation in submarines. The Transistor Transistor Logic (TTL) logic gate, which

14884-524: Was written in LEMAP assembly language that uses 27 instructions described above and a set of pseudo-operations used by the assembler. The main computation cycle was 2 seconds long. This 2-second cycle was divided into 100 segments; each of these segments had a duration of 20 ms . These segments were used for computations that needed to be recalculated every 20 ms (like IMU signal processing, update of PGNCS downlink data, direction cosines update, etc.). There

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