Tales from the Lunar Module Guidance Computer
(A paper presented to the 27th annual Guidance and Control
Conference of the American Astronautical Society (AAS),
in
Breckenridge, Colorado on February 6, 2004, and designated
AAS 04-064. This version includes additional illustrations and
comments, and several minor corrections.)
Copyright © 2004 by Don Eyles
All rights reserved.
Used with permission from the author.
ABSTRACT: The Apollo 11 mission succeeded in landing on the moon
despite two computer-related problems that affected the Lunar
Module during the powered descent. An uncorrected problem in the
rendezvous radar interface stole approximately 13% of the
computer's duty cycle, resulting in five program alarms and
software restarts. In a less well-known problem, caused by
erroneous data, the thrust of the LM's descent engine fluctuated
wildly because the throttle control algorithm was only marginally
stable. The explanation of these problems provides an opportunity
to describe the operating system of the Apollo flight computers
and the lunar landing guidance software.
AAS 04-064