Flight Design System Research (FDS)

[Urwumpe]

Since I am responsible for getting a replacement for MECOCalc ASAP, I stumbled over a new acronym in the Shuttle context, the Flight Design System.

It does exactly what our mission planning tool should do for SSU, it allows planning a mission and predict impact areas, MECO conditions, etc.

Users Guide for the Flight Design System (FDS)

While most of the FDS is really a product of its computer technology (of 1980), it is still a pretty useful structure to lean on for our SSU Toolbox, maybe we should consider making a modernized version of it a section of the Toolbox.

Also, it looks like I can get a lot of algorithm data of the FDS from the current NTRS.

Algorithm references:
Flight Design System C-Level Requirements: Solid Rocket Booster and External Tank Impact Prediction Processors

 

[indy91]

Necroposting is my favourite :lol:

NTRS is a good resource, but the pre 2013 NTRS was even better resource! Luckily a lot of the stuff they took down back then was archived, among them these documents:

Flight Design System-1
System Design Document
Processor Library

Book 1
Book 2
Book 3

Almost 2000 pages of late 1979 Shuttle processor descriptions. Relevant for me, because it has a section about the Orbital Maneuver Processor. That section actually doesn't have any detailed information about the processor routines of the OMP, likely because it would be too large. On the other hand it has descriptions of the processor routines for the Launch Window/Targeting Processor, mostly complete, some parts abridged. That is what I am currently studying (also because it is based on the Skylab launch window processor which I want to implement for NASSP). And it does have 250 pages about the Deorbit Targeting Processor which I haven't even started looking at. What I did see though is that it is referencing the same 1976 JSC memo as the 2007 FDO Console Handbook did, so it probably was still relevant through the end of the Shuttle program.

The documents that would have the full program flows and equations are usually internal MSC/JSC memos, which are referenced in these FDS documents. Those memos are not usually on NTRS, not even the archived one. What NTRS had were mostly memos from 1967 to 1969. The National Archives has an almost complete collection of these memos, which can be requested to be scanned for many $$$. Or, as I did it before for Apollo stuff, I asked Ron Burkey (creator of the Virtual AGC emulator) who went to NARA himself to scan AGC schematics to scan one or two documents for me as well. :lol:

 

[GLS]

Well, there goes my weekend...:woohoo:

---------- Post added at 11:45 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:42 AM ----------

What I did see though is that it is referencing the same 1976 JSC memo as the 2007 FDO Console Handbook did, so it probably was still relevant through the end of the Shuttle program.

Even if it isn't, most of that stuff is what got Young and Crippen home, so it's much better than nothing. :shrug:

 

[Gingin]

Very interesting, Thanks :thumbup: