April 3Apr 3 Moderator The Free Return trajectory is the 'safety valve' Route guaranteeing a return to Earth's influence without having to make a substantial Engine burn to stay 'in the lane'. Apollo 13 had to leave the Free Return for a 'hybrid' trajectory in order to reach its Landing site (the Fra Mauro highlands) which was at a higher Lunar Latitude than the previous two landings which were more Equatorial, within the boundaries of Free Return. When their accident happened, 13 had to perform a Docked Burn with the Lunar Module's Descent Engine in order to leave its Hybrid trajectory and put the spacecraft back onto Free Return.
April 3Apr 3 Author 1 hour ago, martin-w said: Great footage of the launch from the onboard camera. 39:50 solid rocket separation. The video has vanished. 😆
April 3Apr 3 1 hour ago, ViperPilot said: Apollo 13 had to leave the Free Return for a 'hybrid' trajectory in order to reach its Landing site (the Fra Mauro highlands) which was at a higher Lunar Latitude than the previous two landings which were more Equatorial, within the boundaries of Free Return. When their accident happened, 13 had to perform a Docked Burn with the Lunar Module's Descent Engine in order to leave its Hybrid trajectory and put the spacecraft back onto Free Return. At the time - as a nine year old - I watched all this avidly but with hardly any understanding. Nowadays I know what an incredible feat the successful return of Apollo 13 was.
April 3Apr 3 Moderator 3 hours ago, DD_Arthur said: At the time - as a nine year old - I watched all this avidly but with hardly any understanding. Nowadays I know what an incredible feat the successful return of Apollo 13 was. There was about a three hour period starting around 58 hours into the Flight when the Controller Teams changed over and ended when the Crew performed the Engine Burn for the Free Return trajectory. In that time, the Crew completed the power down of the Command/Service Module (CSM) including preserving the Guidance Coordinates and transferring that data to the Computer aboard the Lunar Module (LM). Next, the spacecraft broke contact with Houston for almost an hour in order for the Integrated Communications controllers (INCO) to reconfigure and test the Telemetry and Communications channels on both the CSM and LM because signals from the 3rd Stage (the S-IVB) were interfering with Telemetry and Communications on board the spacecraft. Concurrently, both the Flight Dynamics (FIDO) and Guidance (GUIDO) controllers were calculating the Burn Rate and duration the Lunar Module's Descent Engine would have to fire in order to get back to the Free Return trajectory, and when they could perform the Burn. When Communications and Telemetry with the spacecraft was reestablished at 60 Hours, the Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM) Astronaut Jack Lousma informed the Crew of the intentions for the Burn at 61 Hours, 30 Minutes. The Controllers and Crew then spent the remaining time powering up the Lunar Module for the Burn, a procedure that normally took three Hours to complete. The Burn went off without a hitch, and the Crew then powered down the Lunar Module in order to conserve Battery power and Water, which cooled the Electrical systems.
April 4Apr 4 Watching rocket launches never gets old Christopher Low AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU / 64GB DDR5-6000 RAM / 12GB Nvidia RTX 4070 Super GPU / Gigabyte X870E Aorus Elite Wifi 7 / 1+2TB Samsung Evo Plus M2 Nvme UK2000 Beta Tester
April 4Apr 4 Author 4 hours ago, Christopher Low said: Watching rocket launches never gets old Just been announced that the crew are closer to the Moon than Earth.
April 4Apr 4 And now they report a strange new burning smell from the toilet. If they have to improvise another method for dealing with bodily functions, it will be complicated due to zero gravity. 5800X3D, RTX4070, 600 Watt, one or two 1440p 32" screens, 64 GB RAM, 4 TB PCle 3 NVMe, Warthog throttle, VKB NXT EVO stick, Honeycomb Alpha yoke, CH quad, 3 Logitech panels, 2 StreamDecks, Desktop Aviator Trim Panel. Crystal Light VR.
April 4Apr 4 Author 6 minutes ago, Fielder said: And now they report a strange new burning smell from the toilet. If they have to improvise another method for dealing with bodily functions, it will be complicated due to zero gravity. 😮 Oh dear. Regarding the last toilet issue, it was actually the lady astronaut that acted as space plumber and fixed it. I have it on good authority that she made sure the toilet seat was configured to always stay down, so that those inconsiderate boys didn't leave it up. I suspect that the burning smell was probably the "space" heater she installed to keep the seat warm. As most men discover, ladies don't like a cold bum bum.
April 4Apr 4 Administrators Weird 🚽 smell?? Sorry, that was me! I had an emergency! Charlie AronAVSIM Board of Directors-ADMIN/Moderator-RegistrarJust going to run a Chromebook and not upgrade to a Windows computer. Too many problems with the new Sims! 😱Trying to keep peace and harmony and the will of Landru on the site seems to be a full time job!
April 4Apr 4 16 minutes ago, charliearon said: Weird 🚽 smell?? Sorry, that was me! I had an emergency! Now that’s a diarr(hea) emergency!
April 4Apr 4 Administrators More of a dia-REAL one! 😉 Charlie AronAVSIM Board of Directors-ADMIN/Moderator-RegistrarJust going to run a Chromebook and not upgrade to a Windows computer. Too many problems with the new Sims! 😱Trying to keep peace and harmony and the will of Landru on the site seems to be a full time job!
April 4Apr 4 Author 1 hour ago, charliearon said: Weird 🚽 smell?? Sorry, that was me! I had an emergency! 😮 And I thought the SLS had a lot of thrust. I was sadly mistaken. With thrust like that Mars in a few days becomes a real possibility.
Create an account or sign in to comment