Developing Lunar Landing Vehicle Display Requirements through Content Analysis of Apollo Lunar Landing Voice Communications

Abstract

The lengthy period since the Apollo landings limits present-day engineers attempting to draw from the experiences of veteran Apollo engineers and astronauts in the design of a new lunar lander. In order to circumvent these limitations, content analyses were performed on the voice transcripts of the Apollo lunar landing missions. The analyses highlighted numerous inefficiencies in the design of the Apollo Lunar Module displays, particularly in the substantial use of the cognitive resources of the Lunar Module Pilot in the performance of low-level tasks. The results were used to generate functional and information requirements for the next-generation lunar lander cockpit.