Description and Performance of the Saturn Launch Vehicle's Navigation, Guidance, and Control System

Abstract

A review of the navigation, guidance, and control system of the Saturn launch vehicle includes the system analysis and design, signal flow diagrams, redundancy, and self-checking features used to obtain extreme reliability for crew safety.The iterative path adaptive guidance mode, featuring flight path optimization, is explained and presented in its computational form. Following the analytical considerations, the main guidance and control components are described. The navigation and control information is obtained inertinlly by a gyro-servo-stabilized, three-gimbal platform system with three mutually orthogonal pendulous-integrating gyro accelerometers; the single-degree-of-freedom gyros as well as the accelerometers use externally-pressurized gas bearings. Rate gyroscopes provide attitude staoilization; some vehicle configurations require additional accelerometer control to reduce wind loads. The digital computer system serves as the computation, central data, and onboard programing center, which ties in with the ground computer system during the prelaunch checkout of the overall system. The control signals are combined, shaped, attenuated, and amplified by an analog type control computer for engine actuator control.Results obtained in recent launchings of Saturn V vehicles are presented to confirm the adequacy of the navigation, guidance, and control system and its overall performance even under extreme flight perturbations.