🚀 go-pugleaf

First of all, thanks to all those people who replied me and to those who
are going to... :-)

SteveH wrote:

> My father still reckons that they didn't go to the moon and that it was a
> 'put up job'.  Too much Capricorn One I think.

well... it'd be kind of annoying working hard on a report about
something that never happened... :-)

> What level of course are you doing? It might be worth having a word with
> your tutor/lecturer/mentor.  I'd guess the examining board would be looking
> for particular elements within any paper.  By looking at it top down you
> would remove doubts about whether something should go in or not.  Collecting
> and analysing data can be pretty time consuming and may not be a good move
> from a percentages point of view.

you're absolutely right.

I'm following a basic physics course (newton's laws, universal
gravitation's law,  etc.).

Since now I wrote 5 page analyzing only the physical phenomenon.
Going from Newton's laws I derived the rocket equation, then, I list the
phases of my report: ascent phase, Earth orbit phase, Translunar phase,
Lunar orbit phase, Descent (moon) phase.
Then, as an example, I insert gravity in the rocket equation, but I
explain that to do a correct analysis I need more data in the equation,
since we have to consider air viscosity, gravity change; furthermore,
the rocket won't go straight up, but it will bend immediately to get
orbital velocity as soon as possible and oppose it to the force of
gravity.

Then I explain why multipart rockets are the right solution to economize
with fuel and send more payload. (Anyway, no equation in this part).

Then I speak about escape velocity. Describing shortly the potential
energy of the rocket following universal gravitation law, I derive the
equation of escape velocity.

So we got our rocket in translunar trajectory. I speak about the
decelerations needed to put our spacecraft in lunar obit. I give some
numbers (velocity) but nothing more.

I speak about the Lunar Module descent giving an appropriate version of
the rocket equation. Here it is

Vfin j = V j + U ln( Mlm+fuel / Mlm ) j -g(moon)t

with
Vfin: final velocity, touchdown velocity (negative value)
V: initial velocity (negative value greater than final velocity value)
Mlm+fuel: mass of lunar module + mass of fuel
Mlm: mass of lunar module

At the landing, Vfin is supposed to be a negative value since the LM has
to land. Anyway, it must be a little value (in modulus) because the LM
can crash. I don't have any idea about which is the limit value that
permit the LM not to crash.

I don't even know if the equation I wrote above is correct :-)

Well, that's what I've done since now.
I can translate my work in English and put it online to let those nice
volunteers who want to help me download it.
Is there anyone interested?

I showed my work to my lecturer and he told me that he would prefer if I
focus more only about the landing. To put it in another way, we're
already in lunar orbit.

Anyway, he told me not to delete the part before the lunar orbit
(luckily, I worked hard on it :-) and just make it easier and more
conversational, removing some mathematical passages.

Now I know I have to focus on the lunar orbit, lunar module descent
part. Since now I only wrote that equation, but I could add some stuff
about orbital mechanics and dynamics of the landing.
Need some equations!!! :-)

I repeat, "my" module is in lunar orbit, it has to land. I have to give
all the details about it.

Luckily moon hasn't got atmosphere... :-)

Oh yeah, another thing. My lecturer told me that I could describe the
translunar orbit. Why did they use a "8 shape"(I don't know the name)
orbit instead of an elliptical one?

> Stephen

Thanks to all those nice people who want to help me. :-)
Ciao, Ippolito

PS
I'll also have to put data inside my rep, here's a quick recap of all
the data I found:

APOLLO BY THE NUMBERS
http://www.flatoday.com/space/explore/manspace/apollo/apollo11.pdf

TECHICAL INFORMATION SUMMARY APOLLO 11
http://www.thebest.net/jduncan/pdf/a11techsum.pdf

Encyclopedia Astronautica
http://www.friends-partners.org/~mwade/spaceflt.htm
(this site is damn cool!!!)