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<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<title>Chariots For Apollo, ch2-4</title>
<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">
<p>
<h2>Astronavigation - The First Apollo Contract</h2>
<p>
The guidance and navigation (or "G&N") system was a
central concern in spacecraft design. To get to the moon and back to
earth was a monumental task. NASA and its predecessor, NACA, had little
experience in this field; but neither had anyone else. When NASA opened
for business in 1958, more work had been done in celestial mechanics for
trips to Mars than to the moon. MIT, in fact, had an Air Force contract
that included research on interplanetary guidance and navigation. Out of
this came a relatively extensive study for an unmanned probe to pass by
and photograph Mars. By the time it was finished, however, this kind of
role in space belonged exclusively to NASA.<p>
With the blessing of the Air Force, MIT engineers took the results of
their study to NASA Headquarters on 15 September 1959. Their timing was
bad; only two days earlier the Russians had crash-landed Lunik II on the
moon (the first man-made object to reach that body) and had impressed
the American space community by having built a launch vehicle powerful
enough and a guidance system sophisticated enough to get it there. In
this atmosphere, the MIT presentation netted only a small study
contract. And when feasibility contracts for the Apollo spacecraft were
awarded in November 1960, how to get the crew to the moon and back was
still a question.<a href = "#source14">14</a><p>
Like other phases of Apollo, the G&N system drew on the past. The
foundation had been laid by Kepler, Newton, and Laplace in theoretical
celestial mechanics and had been advanced as a practical science by such
devices as Foucault's gyroscope (an instrument Sperry later made almost
synonymous with his name). These and other achievements in aerial
navigation and space guidance and control were not sufficient for a trip
to the moon, although some engineers in the Apollo program did use the
early classics in estimating fuel and developing computerized trajectory
equations.<a href = "#source15">15</a><p>
To a great extent, lunar navigation development relied on such newcomers
in the field as computers and a worldwide tracking and communications
network. By the 1960s, the electronic computer had become an integral
tool of science, technology, and business. Without its capacities for
memorizing, calculating, comparing, and displaying astronomical amounts
of data, the lunar landing program would have been impossible. Worldwide
tracking and communications networks evolved out of meteorology,
astronomy, telemetry, missilery, and automatic spacecraft experience
into manned space flight planning and operations. Most of the credit for
telecommunications work at NASA operations belongs to the Goddard center
in Greenbelt, Maryland. Myriads of data collected from unmanned
satellites were processed daily in its computer banks and transmitted to
such agencies as the Weather Bureau and the Geological Survey. Guidance
and control technology shared the same evolutionary roots as tracking
and communications, but it also drew on advances in avionics,
gyroscopics, maritime and aerial navigation, antisubmarine and
antiaircraft fire control systems, and cybernetics.<a href =
"#source16">16</a><p>
MIT was the obvious place for NASA to look for help in Apollo's
astronavigation problems. For many years, Charles Stark Draper, Director
of MIT's Instrumentation Laboratory, had been recognized as the man most
directly responsible for the application of automatic pilots and
inertial guidance systems.<a href = "#source17">17</a> Achievements in
such second-generation intercontinental ballistic missiles as the
Polaris made Draper's laboratory the logical solesource choice for the
Apollo system.<p>
<p align=center>
<img src = "images/c040a.jpg" width=405 height=584 ALT="Draper inspects Apollo G and C"><p>
<cite>Navigating to the moon: MIT Instrumentation Laboratory Director C.
Stark Draper inspects a mockup of the Apollo guidance and control system
in the September 1963 photo above.</cite>
<p>
<hr>
<p>
<p align=center>
<img src = "images/c040b.jpg" width=408 height=587 ALT="Hoag examines IMU"><p>
<cite>David G. Hoag, technical design director at the laboratory, examines
the inertial measuring unit that would measure changes in Apollo spacecraft
velocity when propulsion systems were fired.</cite>
<p>
<hr>
<p>
Draper appointed Milton B. Trageser as project manager and David G. Hoag
as technical director. These new Apollo leaders consulted with guidance
theoreticians at Ames Research Center,<a href = "#explanation1">*</a> <a
href = "#source18">18</a> before starting on the contract. Reassured by
these talks and by the in-house MIT work of J. H. Lanning in 1958 on
preliminary designs for a Mars mission and of J. S. Miller and Richard
H. Battin in 1960 on studies of applied mathematics, Draper's laboratory
was convinced that it had no near rivals in the field.<a href =
"#source19">19</a><p>
When the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory signed a letter contract for
Apollo on 10 August 1961, NASA officials assumed they had placed this
complicated task in good hands. From the outset, there was a clear
understanding that MIT would do only the technical design and prototype
development; when the manufacturing phase commenced, industrial
contractors would take over. NASA monitors anticipated some problems in
employing separate firms to make the guidance, control, and navigation
equipment - but that worry could wait. In the meantime, Draper's men
were not completely sure that NASA people really understood the
differences between the three terms.<a href = "#source20">20</a><p>
"Guidance," to MIT, meant directing the movement of a craft
with particular reference to a selected path or trajectory.
"Navigation," in space as on the seas, referred to determining
present position, as accurately as possible, in relation to a future
destination. "Control," specifically in astronautics, was the
directing of a craft's movements with relation to its attitude (yaw,
pitch, and roll) or velocity (speed and direction, a vector quantity).
MIT's expertise centered on the first two of these factors; NASA
engineers (particularly those who had worked with earth-orbital flight)
emphasized the first and third.<a href = "#source21">21</a><p>
Still, NASA's Apollo engineers were encouraged by what they saw of the
laboratory's work and were assured by MIT that getting to the moon and
back was simpler than guiding an antiballistic missile or
circumnavigating the earth under water in a nuclear submarine.<a href =
"#explanation2">**</a><p>
NASA officials had some doubts. In June 1961, Dryden requested Draper to
come to Washington to discuss G&N problems with Webb. Webb asked if
MIT could really get a man to the moon and back safely. Draper replied
that he would be willing to make the voyage himself, if Webb would
guarantee the propulsion system. Over the next few months, Draper
continued to hear mutterings of disbelief. To display his confidence in
his team, he wrote Seamans, saying:
<blockquote><p>I would like to volunteer for service as a crew member on
the Apollo mission to the moon. . . . We at the Instrumentation
Laboratory are going full throttle on the Apollo guidance work, and I am
sure that our endeavors will lead to success. . . . let me know what
application blanks I should fill out. . . .<a href =
"#source22">22</a></blockquote><p>
Draper's offer to serve as an astronaut caused a ripple of laughter
throughout NASA Headquarters, but only for a moment. There were other
problems to resolve. The basic rocket booster for the moon mission was
still in question, and NASA's administrators were in the process of
selecting a spacecraft manufacturer.
<p>
<hr>
<p>
<a name = "explanation1">*</a> Before and during the Apollo feasibility
studies, the Ames center had focused on guidance and navigation as the
area where it could be most useful to Apollo. Stanley F. Schmidt had
looked at midcourse guidance; Dean R. Chapman and Rodney Wingrove had
concentrated on reentry guidance; and G. Allan Smith had worked on
instrumentation for the astronauts' onboard operations.<p>
<a name = "explanation2">**</a> On 10 May 1960, the U.S.S. Triton
completed a 66,800-kilometer submerged cruise around the globe.
<p>
<hr>
<p>
<a name = "source14"><b>14</b>.</a> Richard H. Battin, interview, Cambridge,
Mass., 29 April 1966; Jack Funk, interview, Houston, 25 June 1970; John
W. Finney, "Washington Praises Shot; Hopes for Sharing of
Data," <cite>New York Times,</cite> 14 Sept. 1959; "NASA
Initiates Study on Impact of Space," <cite>Aviation Week &
Space Technology,</cite> vol. 72 (1 Feb. 1960); Milton B. Trageser,
interview, Cambridge, 27 April 1966; Stanley F. Schmidt to Harry J.
Goett, 9 June 1961; Goett to Silverstein, 16 June 1961; Piland to Assoc.
Dir., STG, "Possible MIT Guidance and Control Study for
Apollo," 4 Nov. 1960; Piland note to Donlan, "Apollo
activities," 9 Nov. 1960; Robert G. Chilton to Assoc. Dir., STG,
"Meeting with MIT Instrumentation Laboratory to Discuss Navigation
and Guidance Support for Project Apollo," 28 Nov. 1960; Trageser to
Donlan, 2 Dec. 1960, and 22 Dec. 1960, with encs., "Technical
Proposal to NASA . . . Space Task Group, for a Guidance and Navigation
System Study for Project Apollo," 23 Dec. 1960, and "Cost
Proposal to . . . Space Task Group, for a Guidance and Navigation System
Study for Project Apollo," 23 Dec. 1960; Chilton to Assoc. Dir.,
STG, "Massachusetts Institute of Technology Guidance System Study
for Apollo," 16 Jan. 19-61; Piland, "Apollo Programming -
January 1961," n.d.; Chilton to Assoc. Dir., STG, "Visit to
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Instrumentation Laboratory, March
23, 24, 1961," 3 April 1964.<p>
<a name = "source15"><b>15</b>.</a> Thomas P. Hughes, <cite>Elmer Sperry:
Inventor and Engineer</cite> (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1971);
Funk and Trageser interviews.<p>
<a name = "source16"><b>16</b>.</a> William R. Corliss, <cite>Histories of the
Space Tracking and Data Acquisition Network (STADAN), the Manned Space
Flight Network (MSFN), and the NASA Communications Network
(NASCOM),</cite> NASA CR-140390, June 1974.<p>
<a name = "source17"><b>17</b>.</a> C. S. Draper, "The Evolution of
Aerospace Guidance Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, 1935–1951," paper presented at the 5th IAA History
Symposium, Brussels, Belgium, 19–25 Sept. 1971; Vannevar Bush,
<cite>Pieces of the Action</cite> (New York: William Morrow, 1970), p.
170. See also background and brief history of Draper in C. Stark Draper,
Walter Wrigley, and John Havorka, <cite>Inertial Guidance</cite> (New
York: Pergamon Press, 1960), pp. 14-23.<p>
<a name = "source18"><b>18</b>.</a> Chilton to Assoc. Dir., STG, 3 April 1961;
Schmidt to Goett, 9 June 1961; Goett to Silverstein, 16 June 1961.<p>
<a name = "source19"><b>19</b>.</a> Richard H. Battin, <cite>Astronautical
Guidance</cite> (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964).<p>
<a name = "source20"><b>20</b>.</a> David W. Gilbert, "A Historical
Description of the Apollo Guidance and Navigation System
Development," SG-100-153, 31 Dec. 1963, with encs.; William W.
Petynia to Assoc. Dir., STG, "Visit to MIT, Instrumentation
Laboratory on September 12–13, regarding Apollo Navigation and Guidance
Contract," 21 Sept. 1961; idem, "Second Apollo monthly meeting
at MIT, Instrumentation Laboratory, on October 4, 1961," 10 Oct.
1961.<p>
<a name = "source21"><b>21</b>.</a> Milton B. Trageser and David G. Hoag,
"Apollo Spacecraft Guidance System," MIT-IL Rept. R-495, paper
presented at the IFAC Symposium on Automatic Control in the Peaceful
Uses of Space, Stavanger, Norway, June 1965; Richard H. Battin,
"Apollo NGC in the Journals," <cite>Astronautics &
Aeronautics</cite> 9 (January 1971): 22-23; Robert G. Chilton,
"Apollo Spacecraft Control Systems," in John A. Aseltine, ed.,
<cite>Peaceful Uses of Automation in Outer Space</cite> (New York:
Plenum Press, 1966); Aaron Cohen, "Powered Flight Steering and
Control of Apollo Spacecraft," paper presented to Northrop
Nortronics Society of Automotive Engineers Committee, Houston, 11–13
Dec. 1963.<p>
<a name = "source22"><b>22</b>.</a> Draper, interviews, Cambridge, 23 April
1968, and Houston, 27 Aug. 1973; Draper to Seamans, 21 Nov. 1961; Eugene
M. Emme, <cite>Aeronautics and Astronautics: An American Chronology of
Science and Technology in the Exploration of Space, 1915–1960</cite>
(Washington: NASA, 1961), p. 123.
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