Apollo 8 done. What's next?

[Zuppermati]

Hello everyone

After 1 year and 4 days, I've finally finished my first full simulation of Apollo 8. This is the first time I've managed to fly a full mission. Now I wanted to ask you guys for your opinion: keeping in mind that I can't spend too much time on NASSP (just look at how much time it took me to finish Apollo 8), what would be the next pratical step? I guess I qualify to try (try =/= finish succesfully) a mission with the LEM, but I'd like to skip at least Apollo 9 and go straight to either Apollo 10 or even 11 because of my limited time.

TD;RL: is Apollo 10 an "unskippable requirement" to learn how to do a full lunar mission, or can someone make it to the Sea of Tranquillity with 0 LEM experience by following step by step the MFD checklist and MCC calculations (which is what I did on Apollo 8 anyway lol)

Many thanks in advance

 

[Thespacer]

I originally started with Apollo 8 and then went to 11, as you’re contemplating. I think it is feasible. It is not necessarily completely straight-forward - you will see from some of the threads going around at the moment, there are some imperfections with the checklist MFD at present - but I’m quite certain you can get to the lunar surface, in a couple of tries (save often when you get to the LM activation and undocking).

I subsequently attempted Apollo 9, and it is comparatively difficult. There are many testing procedures to undertake and their relevance to the mission overall is somewhat abstract, compared to the concrete results you get from your actions in Apollo 11.

I believe Apollo 10 has only recently become a more fully-supported NASSP mission, and I know Indy has been taking the time to go through the mission with the specific AGC software. In my view, if you have limited time to spend on NASSP, you may as well do Apollo 11. Given the length of time you spent on Apollo 8, you may find it a bit unfortunate not to go the extra 5% and land.

 

[indy91]

Go directly to Apollo 11. Until PDI there is very little difference between 10 and 11, so you have to learn all the same things about the LM anyway. And from there you can do it step by step for all the stuff that is new to you. Landing, lunar surface procedures, ascent, rendezvous. If you haven't flown Apollo 7 or 9 then all the rendezvous procedures will be new to you, so if anything helps you in terms of training it would be that from 7, 9 or 10.

 

[Zuppermati]

Ok then I'll follow your advices thank you very much!

 

[MrFickles]

I agree. Go straight to 11. Apollo 7 and 9 were missions to test out the CSM and LM in Earth orbit, so their flight plans included tests of various procedures you wouldn't do on a nominal mission. Unless you really want to be a completionist and learn everything there is about the spacecraft, you can skip 7 and 9.

Apollo 10's profile is basically the same as Apollo 11 minus the PDI, surface ops, and ascent. No point wasting your time doing everything the same but not getting to land.

If you really want to train on the LM procedures before trying to land, I'd recommend just loading up the Apollo 9 mission scenarios 09 - LM activation, and 18 - rendezvous (just pretend you're doing a simulator session). Don't waste your time practicing rendezvous on Apollo 7, because you won't be flying a CSM active rendezvous or use optical tracking ever.