Question abt Lunar landing simulators

Did the LLTVs have images of the lunar surface projected onto their 'windows'?

Did some other lunar landing simulator have moving lunar surface images displayed on the windows to simulate motion across the lunar surface in response to the pilot's control actions?

Background: In 1962-64 I was a computer programmer at NASA's Langley Research Center. One of my projects was a program to generate data to feed to an automated carving tool (which I never saw) which was to track back and forth across a slab of paraffin to shape a model of a section of the lunar surface. I understood that the LM mock-up pilot's control actions would control the motion of cameras moving across the moon model and send those images to the 'windows' of the simulator to simulate the view as the 'LM' approached the surface.

Does anyone know if such a simulator was actually built and utilized? If so, was the model lunar surface preserved? stored? displayed? photographed?

We had contour maps of the lunar surface. The input to my program was generated by sampling points along contours. That data essentially had fixed z-coordinate values (elevation) and randomly changing x-y coordinates. My output was regularly incrementing x-y coordinates with approximated z values..

On 7/25/2019 9:07 PM, wrote:
Did the LLTVs have images of the lunar surface projected onto their 'windows'?

Did some other lunar landing simulator have moving lunar surface images displayed on the windows to simulate motion across the lunar surface in response to the pilot's control actions?

Background: In 1962-64 I was a computer programmer at NASA's Langley Research Center. One of my projects was a program to generate data to feed to an automated carving tool (which I never saw) which was to track back and forth across a slab of paraffin to shape a model of a section of the lunar surface. I understood that the LM mock-up pilot's control actions would control the motion of cameras moving across the moon model and send those images to the 'windows' of the simulator to simulate the view as the 'LM' approached the surface.

Does anyone know if such a simulator was actually built and utilized? If so, was the model lunar surface preserved? stored? displayed? photographed?

We had contour maps of the lunar surface. The input to my program was generated by sampling points along contours. That data essentially had fixed z-coordinate values (elevation) and randomly changing x-y coordinates. My output was regularly incrementing x-y coordinates with approximated z values.


This is a great question for the ARocket mailing list.
You can subscribe he

http://www.arocketry.net/forum.html

Sad but questions like this used to get a full airing here. I could
re-post your question to ARocket and paste the answers back here, but
why be the middleman when you can get your questions (and followup
questions) answered first hand over there.

Good Luck,
Dave

David,

Thanks for your recommendation.

I just read the intro to the aRocket forum. It seems to be specific to amateur rocketry. My question is about NASA history. It doesn't seem to me that I would be on topic.

David,

Thanks for your recommendation.

I just read the intro to the aRocket forum. It seems to be specific to amateur rocketry. My question is about NASA history. It doesn't seem to me that I would be on topic.

On 19-07-27 18:40 , wrote:
David,

Thanks for your recommendation.

I just read the intro to the aRocket forum. It seems to be specific
to amateur rocketry. My question is about NASA history. It doesn't
seem to me that I would be on topic.

The people most in voice on aRocket are the kinds of "amateurs" who used
to work in NASA and commercial aerospace companies, then went into
start-up private launcher development, and now do professional
consulting in the area. I think you will find NASA history experts
there, as well as experts on rocketry in general.

--
Niklas Holsti
Tidorum Ltd
niklas holsti tidorum fi
. @ .

On 7/27/2019 12:35 PM, Niklas Holsti wrote:
On 19-07-27 18:40 , wrote:
David,

Thanks for your recommendation.

I just read the intro to the aRocket forum.Â* It seems to be specific
to amateur rocketry.Â* My question is about NASA history.Â* It doesn't
seem to me that I would be on topic.

The people most in voice on aRocket are the kinds of "amateurs" who used
to work in NASA and commercial aerospace companies, then went into
start-up private launcher development, and now do professional
consulting in the area. I think you will find NASA history experts
there, as well as experts on rocketry in general.


Agree with Niklas here.

Topics often drift off from strictly amateur rocketry into NASA history etc.

The rule isn't strictly enforced and people tend to pick and choose the
threads they participate in.

Dave

On 26/07/2019 02:07, wrote:

Did the LLTVs have images of the lunar surface projected onto their 'windows'?

https://history.nasa.gov/alsj/LLRV_Monograph.pdf

https://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/news/FactSheets/FS-026-DFRC.html

Did some other lunar landing simulator have moving lunar surface images displayed on the windows to simulate motion across the lunar surface in response to the pilot's control actions?

https://sservi.nasa.gov/articles/nasas-moon-simulator/
https://crgis.ndc.nasa.gov/historic/Lunar_Excursion_Module_Simulator

"The Lunar Module Simulators in Houston and Cape Kennedy were produced
by the Link Group of Singer General Precision Systems, under contract to
Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, with visual display units
provided by Farrand Optical Company."

Originally three LMS were planned, but the third was cancelled.


https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2019/07/08/apollos-lunar-module-simulator/
https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2019/07/05/reminiscences-of-apollo/

Background: In 1962-64 I was a computer programmer at NASA's Langley Research Center. One of my projects was a program to generate data to feed to an automated carving tool (which I never saw) which was to track back and forth across a slab of paraffin to shape a model of a section of the lunar surface. I understood that the LM mock-up pilot's control actions would control the motion of cameras moving across the moon model and send those images to the 'windows' of the simulator to simulate the view as the 'LM' approached the surface.

Does anyone know if such a simulator was actually built and utilized? If so, was the model lunar surface preserved? stored? displayed? photographed?

We had contour maps of the lunar surface. The input to my program was generated by sampling points along contours. That data essentially had fixed z-coordinate values (elevation) and randomly changing x-y coordinates. My output was regularly incrementing x-y coordinates with approximated z values.

wrote in message
...

Did the LLTVs have images of the lunar surface projected onto their
'windows'?

I don't believe they had any windows. The LLRV itself certainly didn't.

Did some other lunar landing simulator have moving lunar surface images
displayed on the windows to simulate motion across the lunar surface in
response to the pilot's control actions?

Background: In 1962-64 I was a computer programmer at NASA's Langley
Research Center. One of my projects was a program to generate data to feed
to an automated carving tool (which I never saw) which was to track back
and forth across a slab of paraffin to shape a model of a section of the
lunar surface. I understood that the LM mock-up pilot's control actions
would control the motion of cameras moving across the moon model and send
those images to the 'windows' of the simulator to simulate the view as the
'LM' approached the surface.

There was a simulator at JSC that did have video monitors that were attached
to a camera that could scan and pan over a model of the lunar surface.
There's an excellent example of this in the "Mare Tranquilitatis" episode of
From the Earth to the Moon. Armstrong allows the camera to "crash" into the
surface in order to make a point.


Does anyone know if such a simulator was actually built and utilized? If
so, was the model lunar surface preserved? stored? displayed? photographed?

We had contour maps of the lunar surface. The input to my program was
generated by sampling points along contours. That data essentially had
fixed z-coordinate values (elevation) and randomly changing x-y
coordinates. My output was regularly incrementing x-y coordinates with
approximated z values.

Check out the above episode. As for if it still exists, no idea. It's
possible (but unlikely) that they used what you created for the episode.


--
Greg D. Moore http://greenmountainsoftware.wordpress.com/
CEO QuiCR: Quick, Crowdsourced Responses. http://www.quicr.net
IT Disaster Response -
https://www.amazon.com/Disaster-Resp...dp/1484221834/

Greg \(Strider\) Moore wrote:
wrote in message

There's an excellent example of this in the "Mare Tranquilitatis" episode of
From the Earth to the Moon. Armstrong

The whole series is worth a watch IMO.

--
Nige Danton - Replace the obvious with g.m.a.i.l

"Nige Danton" wrote in message
...

Greg \(Strider\) Moore wrote:
wrote in message

There's an excellent example of this in the "Mare Tranquilitatis" episode
of
From the Earth to the Moon. Armstrong

The whole series is worth a watch IMO.


Agreed. Just that one was applicable to this answer :-)
Even the "weaker" episodes I think are worth watching and give a unique take
on things.

--
Greg D. Moore http://greenmountainsoftware.wordpress.com/
CEO QuiCR: Quick, Crowdsourced Responses. http://www.quicr.net
IT Disaster Response -
https://www.amazon.com/Disaster-Resp...dp/1484221834/