posted 01-20-2015 08:04 AM               

I am working to understand the relationship between Program 22 (P22) success and the Apollo 12 pinpoint landing and how this would have had a bearing on the Apollo 13 planning and probability of a pinpoint landing. Research is ongoing but not my area of expertise.

The Program 22 referred to is for Orbital Navigation by the Apollo Guidance Computer on board the Command Module.

Presumably this means that data extracted from the CM would not easily translate to the LM after a plane change and the same procedures used for Apollo 12's pinpoint landing could not be used. Would this therefore have required navigation signings from the LM — adding to crew workload?

Would be very keen to hear from anyone with any information.

posted 01-20-2015 03:25 PM               

Scientists desperately wanted to date the Imbrium Event, this was their most pressing question after establishing what the differences were between the two types of lunar mare. The Fra Mauro Formation is vast enough so that, had Apollo 12 not succeeded in making a pinpoint landing, it still would have been selected as 13's target.

Apollo 12's pinpoint landing gave mission planners confidence that a mission could land at some of the more desirable (but rougher) sites at Fra Mauro. It eventually allowed planners to target a site near Cone Crater (the initial Fra Mauro landing site candidates were not within walking distance of Cone) to also obtain deep samples that had been excavated by the formation of Cone.