Guidance in Human Spaceflight
In Feb of 1961 NASA awarded MIT a contract for preliminary design study of a guidance and navigation system for Apollo. MIT and the Delco Electronics Div. of General Motors Corp. were awarded the joint contract for design and production of the Apollo Guidance and Navigation systems for the Command Module and the Lunar Module. Delco produced the IMUs (Inertial Measurement Units) for these systems, Kollsman Instrument Corp. produced the Optical Systems, and the Apollo Guidance Computer was built by Raytheon under subcontract. (see Apollo on-board guidance, navigation, and control system, Dave Hoag, International Space Hall of Fame Dedication Conference in Alamogordo, N.M., October 1976 ).
For the space shuttle, an open loop (no feedback) guidance is used to guide the shuttle from lift off until Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) separation. After SRB separation the primary space shuttle guidance is named PEG (Powered Explicit Guidance). PEG takes into account both the Q system and the predictor-corrector attributes of the original "Delta" System (PEG Guidance). Although many updates to the shuttle's navigation system have taken place over the last 30 years (ex. GPS in the OI-22 build), the guidance core of today's Shuttle GN&C system has evolved little. Within a manned system, there is a human interface needed for the guidance system. As Astronauts are the customer for the system, many new teams are formed that touch GN&C as it is a primary interface to "fly" the vehicle.
Read more about this topic: Inertial Navigation System
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