The Apollo era was a remarkable time for manned spacecraft. In order to set our sights on once again leaving low earth orbit, it is a worthwhile exercise to take a look back at the engineering successes of Apollo, the overarching design philosophies behind the engineering and program decisions, and the lessons they learned that can be applied to current and future space programs. One project performed at The Johns Hopkins University's Chemical Propulsion Information Analysis Center (CPIAC) was to screen extensive amounts of design documentation and reports from multiple sources to identify, analyze, cross reference, and distill information on the underlying philosophy behind design decisions for the Apollo spacecraft's propulsion systems. This paper will highlight some of the key findings from that research, focusing on the design philosophies and factors that contributed to Apollo's success. A discussion of the design philosophies and lessons learned from the design of Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo propulsion systems is provided. The lessons learned from Project Mercury were applied to the design of the Gemini systems. The purpose of the Gemini project was to provide direct support to the lunar effort by testing concepts and exploring system technologies for use in the Apollo program. Thus, the Apollo project represented an effort largely based on two successful manned spaceflight programs. The primary program approach factors and lessons learned from the Gemini and Mercury programs that contributed to the reliability and success of the Apollo design are discussed. The design philosophy and how each factor contributed to the success of the Apollo program is discussed.
展开▼
