APOLLO COMMS flight HARDWARE DEEP DIVE

You no question recall the extraordinary Apollo support computer (AGC) reverse engineering as well as restoration job featured on the CuriousMarc YouTube channel a few years ago. Well, [Marc] as well as the team are at it again, this time around restoring the Apollo Unified S-Band tracking as well as communication system flight hardware. As always, the job is well documented, very carefully explained, full of problems, as well as is proceeding slowly in spite of the lack of documentation.

Like the support computer, the Unified S-Band system was quite ingenious for its day — able to track, supply voice communications, get television signals, as well as send commands to as well as screen the health and wellness of the spacecraft by means of telemetry. The system operates on three frequencies, an uplink consisting of ranging code, voice as well as data. There are two downlinks, one supplying ranging, voice, as well as telemetry, the other utilized for television as well as the playback of recorded data. All crammed into two large boxes totaling 29 kg.

So far, [Marc] has released part 9 of the series (for reference, the Apollo support computer took 27 parts plus 8 auxiliary videos). There seems to be even less documentation for this devices than the AGC, although miraculously the people keep uncovering a lot more as well as a lot more as things progress. likewise random pieces of necessary ground test hardware keep coming out of the woodwork. It’s a interesting dive into not only the system itself, however the style as well as building methods of the era. Be sure to inspect out the series (part 1 is below the break) as well as comply with along as they bring this system back to life. [Marc] is publishing different papers associated to the job on his website. as well as if you missed the AGC project, here’s the playlist of videos, as well as the team joined us for a Hackaday chat back in 2020.