Reexamining the Mission Architecture Decision of Project Apollo: A New Parametric Perspective

Abstract

Although the historical and technical details of Project Apollo have been extensively documented in literature, current records indicate that there is still a lack of an early-design-phase, physics-based, parametric sizing quantification of the engineering decisions that made Apollo a success. Historical texts that explain the design decisions of Apollo do so in a predominantly qualitative manner, leaving out the physics-based Future Projects Office–type calculations, whereas technical texts tend to explain the design details at higher fidelity, overall leading the engineer away from the big picture design understanding. This paper reexamines the critical mission architecture (or mission mode) decision from a holistic and parametric perspective. After parametrically connecting a launch vehicle sizing process with an in-space element sizing process, a generic mission architecture solution space is generated that enables the visualization and comparison of the various Project Apollo architecture options. The mission planner can then consistently compare the competing architecture options like lunar orbit rendezvous or direct flight with each other based on their overall launch mass, launch performance, and launch vehicle cost. It is identified that the lunar orbit rendezvous approach is the clear winner in terms of launch vehicle size and cost.