Student Projects Modeling the First Landing on the Moon | MathWorks Research Summit

In a two-semester exercise lab, computational science and engineering students modeled the first landing on the moon. They read original NASA documentation to model the lunar module designed during the legendary Apollo program. As it is not easy to land on the moon, the original solution to support landing was to use a computer. The challenge was to understand the hardware of the lunar module and to control it during descent. The students first tried their own solution to land. However, after finding the pitfalls and problems of their solution, they tried the original NASA approach and learned how to solve such a difficult problem. As a result, this presentation gives insights on how historical engineering problems can be used to educate students using today’s engineering software. The talk introduces the Apollo spacecraft navigation and guidance system. It shows the principles of the Apollo Guidance Computer and how it supports the moon flights. Then it provides an overview on solving the Apollo problem with Simulink^® and demonstrates how NASA engineers solved the problem. A landing simulation programmed by the students closes the presentation.