14 Nov
2008
14 Nov
'08
4:33 p.m.
Now this is useful. This is the first time we've ever had a name
associated with this.
From ignition to shortly after S2 ignition the software flew in
"Pre-IGM" mode, which we have already figured out. Enough high-level
pre-IGM documentation was recovered to reconstruct it. The part after
was called (wait for it...) "IGM", or Iterative Guidance Mode. The IGM
is significantly more complex. I have some documentation on it but I
haven't managed to reconstruct a working version, and I suspect my
documentation may be incorrect because it was issued some years before
the actual launches took place.
The Pre-IGM simply flew a timed pitch profile and the IGM did the hard
work.
On Nov 13, 2008, at 12:11 AM, jim s wrote:
I had experience with one of the programmers for the
instrumentation
unit for the S5 stage which was in the ring between the first and
second stages, I think.
I was an expert witness in a lawsuit having nothing at all to do with
this, but he was the expert called for the other party.
To make a long story short, expert witness' credentials frequently
turn out to be who has the best credentials.
I talked to him before we went in to a deposition, and I granted him
that point before we even started.
I feel privileged to have met him, and wish we could have visited more
on the subject rather than what we were paid to do. Sadly I was not
even supposed to get into anything but luckily this was told to us
after we had chatted.
I think his name was Tom Follett, and I do not recall ever finding
anything about him. I believe that he had a PhD, but I do not recall
much else, such as company, or education.
I don't know much about what this system had to do other than ground
to second stage ignition guidance tasks.
Jim
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