Richard Gran

"Fly Me to the Moon"

ABSTRACT -- This talk describes the author's involvement with digital autopilot for the Lunar Module (LM), the craft that landed the Apollo astronauts on the Moon in 1969.

The original LM design included an analog control system. The digital autopilot, which ran on the navigation and guidance computer, was created as a backup. Dr. Gran spent the years from 1963 to 1966 developing the digital autopilot.

At that time, no digital autopilot had ever flown. It was not even known whether the LM computer could keep up with the rapid pace of calculations that the autopilot required. To illustrate this difficulty, the LM computer (small and slow by today's standards) and the autopilot will be described.

SPEAKER -- Dr. Richard Gran is CEO of Mathematical Analysis Company, a group that develops mathematical simulations of complex engineering systems. The group also provides expert testimony and does training in the use of MATLAB, Simulink, Stateflow, and related simulation software.

Dr. Gran received his BSEE, MSEE, and Ph.D. from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn.

He joined Grumman Aircraft in time to work on the Apollo project, later working on magnetically levitated (maglev) trains and on the digital flight controls for the X-29.

Colloquium Committee Sponsor: Brent Warner, GSFC, 301-286-8568
Next Week: "The Robotic Search for Antarctic Meteorites", Michael Wagner, Carnegie Mellon University
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