question on Apollo 11 LOI-2

patio

Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2011
Messages
41
Reaction score
14
Points
23
The NASSP MCC apollo11 LOI-2 is a perfect circularization to 60NM

The real flight maneuver was different it seems (non circular 66.1 by 54.4 orbit)

I would like to follow the real flight with NASSP

Is it possible to get the real maneuver PAD in NASSP ?

if yes How ?

Thanks
 

indy91

Addon Developer
Addon Developer
Joined
Oct 26, 2011
Messages
1,226
Reaction score
592
Points
128
The reason why they were targeting a non-circular orbit with LOI-2 does not apply to Orbiter, or at least not the Orbiter version that we are using with NASSP right now.

On Apollo 10 they noticed that the initially circular orbit after LOI-2 was slowly getting more elliptical. This was due to mascons, mass concentrations, causing the lunar gravity field to be a bit irregular. On Apollo 11 (and later) they then tried to be really smart by choosing a very specific orbit for LOI-2 which then, again due to mascons, would actually become more circular later on in the mission. The point in time when they wanted it to be near circular was during the rendezvous, which is when a circular orbit is most helpful. As it turns out, they still didn't really understand the lunar gravity field and the CSM was still in a somewhat elliptical orbit at rendezvous. Better than just after LOI-2, but not as desired. Only slowly over time did they understand the gravity better.

Orbiter 2016 and the Orbiter Beta do not simulate mascons. The eccentricity can vary over one orbit, but over longer periods it stays the same. So for NASSP it does not make much sense currently to target anything but the desired circular orbit. @n72.75 has worked out an update for Orbiter to simulate more complex gravity fields for bodies. I believe it has been merged into Open Orbiter already. So once NASSP switches to Open Orbiter, we can start thinking about using this gravity and how to target orbits for it. Until then, I would suggest to just stick with a circular orbit. I have some rough idea how they targeted LOI-2 on Apollo 11 and even if we used the exact same method, our RTCC would not use the gravity model yet that makes the initial orbit after LOI-2 elliptical.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JMW
Top