TLI checklist (Standard)
When it's possible, the original Apollo documentation is used for the checklists. Steps, which are not possible at the moment, are denoted in grey. Additionally there are checklists in Word file format in the Doc\Project Apollo - NASSP\Check List directory of your installation. Procedural steps in this section are presented in tabular form and in sequence they occure during the mission. The following is a detailed explanation of the columnar data presented in the tabulated lists:
| Time | This column contains the mission time the procedure is to be done. Sometimes there's no fixed time when to do a procedure, in that case the time is left out. |
| Procedure | The procedure is a group of steps or overall tasks involved in performing a complete function or operation. It often consists of controls the astronauts have to toggle or display readings that have to be checked. See CSM panels for more informations. |
| Panel | The panel number of a particular switch or display for easier panel navigation. |
| Remarks | Any useful comment. Please notice especially differences to the original function, bugs or other issues. |
The next step on our journey to the moon is the Trans Lunar Injection, also called TLI. With a single burn of the SIVB engine we'll escape the EPO and extend our orbit so that we reach the moon. In real Apollo this burn was calculated by mission control. The burn data were uploaded to the Saturn Instrument Unit (IU) and the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC). In Project Apollo there is no mission control simulation yet, so we have to do that a different way, by using the Orbiter MFDs.
TLI burn calculation
At first the burn data have to be calculated. "Burn data" mean the time when the burn will happen and the velocity difference the burn will cause. The exact values you need is the time to ejection in seconds and the delta velocity in m/s. After that the burn data will be entered in the DSKY and then the AGC will do the burn automatically. There are three Orbiter MFDs capable to do the burn data calculation:
- The build-in Transfer MFD
Use it as explained in the Orbiter user's manual. It's probably the easiest way to do it, but it's also not very accurate.
- The build-in TransX MFD
One of the best tutorials explaining how to use the TransX MFD for the TLI burn is still the NASSP 5.2 tutorial made by SaturnV, there the "2. Translunar injection" section.
- Jarmo Nikkanen's Interplanetary MFD (IMFD) 4.2.1
It's available at Jarmo's site. This is probably the most accurate and pursuable way to calculate the burn, because it has a quite precise trajectory prediction. Thanks to Jarmo there's a very good tutorial how to setup an Apollo TLI burn and we suggest to use it.
The TLI burn was done in the 2nd orbit after earth orbit insertation, please keep that in mind when setting up the burn. So the time to ejection normally should be roughly about 2h 30min or 9000s, if you do the calculation directly after earth orbit insertation.
TLI preparation
After you managed to see the (decreasing) time to ejection (not the time to burn, the AGC does that by itself) and the delta velocity in on of these MFDs, wait until the time to burn is about 30min or 1800s, then you can continue a little bit more historically correct:
| Time | Procedure | Panel |
Remarks | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| about 02:00:00 |
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