Space Science '63; 3; Special! Space Science

Canaveral in Florida and these are the gantries for some of the free world's mightiest rockets. We're at the pad from which all of the manned orbital space flights have been launched. Hello, I'm John Fitch with a special Space Science 63 report on Project Mercury Mission MA -9. This is the flight that will carry astronaut Loroi Gordon Cooper into 22 orbits over a period of 34 hours. Even now the technicians and engineers are fueling the Mercury Atlas rocket. The spacecraft has been mated to its booster. Nearby is the blockhouse from which the launch operation will actually be controlled and the liquid oxygen tanks used in topping off the fueling operation. Long before the astronaut rides in his transfer van to the launch site, a great deal of activity takes place in a number of locations here on the Cape. In this particular flight, a number of special experiments have been devised. We'll take a look at some of these in just a moment.

This is Hangar S, where the astronaut and his spacecraft spend a great deal of time before the actual day of the launch. In this large high altitude chamber, complete flights can actually be simulated. This is Mr. Douglas Hampton, the member of the Preflight Operations Division. Mr. Hampton, can you tell us a little bit about this chamber and what goes on here? Yes, this is where we test our spacecraft to its nearer to simulated flight conditions as we can. We take the spacecraft, lift the lid off of this chamber, put it inside, and then we take the

astronaut who is suited up as if ready for flight and put him in the spacecraft and put the hatch on, and then we evacuate the chamber with some large pumps located behind this wall to a pressure which is equivalent to 25 miles in the sky. And during this time, while he's all off, he eats, he drinks, and the environmental control system must operate properly. The aeromedical system is operate properly, and it's all evaluated during this time, and at the end of the test, we make a normal descent, just like in a regular flight, and remove the astronaut, and then we evaluate the data to make sure that the spacecraft and systems are indeed ready for flight. You can actually have them go through a complete flight without ever leaving the ground. That's correct. Well, thank you very much for having me. Over here, we have an actual Mercury spacecraft, one that is here for complete testing, and like the astronaut and his space suit, every single little component inside the spacecraft is carefully checked out before the actual flight.

Not all of the experiments are on the inside of the spacecraft. Some of them are on the outside, including this balloon drag experiment contained in this tiny canister. I'd like to have you meet Mr. William Armstrong of NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas. Armstrong seems to have rather trained to need to be dragging a balloon along in orbit with the reason for that. Well, it is the purpose of this is to try to measure the drag that exists in the orbit of the Mercury spacecraft, but I thought it was in a vacuum. How would there be any drag? Well, generally, practically speaking, there is very little air density in this altitude range, but when you think of the speeds that with the spacecraft move around the Earth, then a very small amount of air or particles have an effect on their characteristics, and we'd like to get some idea of this, find out what how we can predict more accurately the lifetime of

the spacecraft. Which would be have is a balloon, which is represented pretty much by this photograph, being towed by the spacecraft by a long line here and attached at the spacecraft to a strain gauge beam. Now, this strain gauge beam is nothing more than a device for measuring the load that exists in this line, and by recording this and later computing the value of this drag, we're able to determine the density that exists through the spacecraft orbit, which varies from about 100 to 160 miles. Will the astronaut himself be able to see the balloon? Yes, it's hoped that he'll be able to see at least a portion at part of the time through the bottom of his window, and we also are carrying along a 16 -millimeter movie camera, which he will photograph balloon motions and balloon appearances at various times during the towed phase. When will this be? When will he tow it? It's intended

that he deploy the balloon about the sixth orbit somewhere off the coast of Japan, and he will carry it around for one orbit and then release it. Well, then what will happen? Well, when the balloon is released, it will tend to fall away or receive from the spacecraft. In fact, it will fall away at a rate of about three miles and something on the order of three minutes. During this period, he will make visual observations of this, and from this we hope to find out how well he can see an object, say, of this size in the space environment. Could we actually take a look at what's inside the canister? Yes, Mr. Bill Carmines at the Langley Research Center was responsible for the design development of the hardware, and I'll let him explain this aspect of the experiment. The balloon is contained in this canister, the balloon and its related components, and this is mounted in the antenna can at the top or small end of the spacecraft. At the to be

ejected in this manner. I like ejecting the box. Yes, it is. These fiberglass sleeves will fly away, the balloon will move out, stripping the one hundred feet of toe line from a storage spoole. That's awfully thin line. That's almost a six pound test or nylon line. At the end of the line, toe line is this little strain gauge beam that will measure the drag on the balloon. See, after the balloon is at the end of its toe line and fully inflated, it will look like the one down in front. How big is that? 30 inches in diameter. That's pretty big. Well, I understand there are other visual experiments at the astronaut as to perform in addition to looking at this balloon. Yes, we have a flashing beacon on board. Flashing beacon is contained in this canister and it's mounted on the retro pack or heat shield end of the spacecraft. The opposite end from the opposite of large end. At the pilot's command, two small power technique device will fire, cutting a

nylon line allowing the four segment door to open. The beacon is then ejected by a spring and piston arrangement at about ten feet per second. As the beacon moves away from the piston, two small switches that have been held closed by the package itself are open and allow the beacon to flash thusly as it goes on in its own orbit. Oh, I see it has its own batteries built right into it. Yes, it has its own power supplies. Everything is built in self -contained. That is really bright. How bright is that? This is about sixty thousand watt per lamp or the equivalent of about six hundred one hundred watt light bulbs. What's the reason for making this experiment? This is needed for experience in tracking for a rendezvous and Mr. Armstrong can explain the flight mechanics of this experiment to you. Thank you very much Mr. Carman. Armstrong already has a balloon to watch what's the necessity of having a flashing beacon. Well, as you know

in our future space program we intend to go to more sophisticated vehicles in fact to our conditions where the astronaut will be required to join up with and become attached to another vehicle in orbit with him or in essence rendezvous with another vehicle. In order to do this one of the concepts is that he will visually sight this other vehicle and move toward it and the idea of this is to try to get some information on what is required for the pilot to see this. Oh, I see it might be a beacon like this flashing on one vehicle and then if you wanted to rendezvous with it by your spacecraft you could look out and see this beacon flashing. That's right what we're doing here is by designing this light the way we have and ejecting it at the velocity and in the direction we we have caused it to separate very slowly from the spacecraft through several orbits. In fact it will be ejected on the third orbit and he will make observations of this during the night phase of three succeeding orbits and

each time it will be getting a little further away from the spacecraft we want him to observe this see how easily he can acquire it and get some idea of its brightness and we will then relate this information to the design of lights for other vehicles where rendezvous will be a part of the mission. Is that recall in one of the earlier flights? The astronaut was actually able to see lights on the ground. Do you plan any experiment along that line? Yes we do. We are setting up a ground light for the astronaut to observe during the one of the orbital passes in fact it's intended that he observed this on either the sixth or the twenty -first orbit or possibly both. Now this ground light is shown by this photograph is in some respects similar to the flashing light in that it uses xenon arc discharge tubes just as that ground flashing light did. We have three banks of six lights each is shown here and these generate a very high intensity light. How bright will it be? Well the easiest way to describe it would be if you can think of the intensity of search lights you see around

new shopping centers that are opening you might think of this is creating brightnesses on this order the only difference being that they are very narrow beam light or they're channeled through a very narrow area where this light will cover much broader area and will not require exact spacecraft positioning. Where will the light be actually located on the Earth? Well it's intended to locate the light in the region of the Union of South Africa somewhere in a region just about here on the globe which is near a town of Bloomfontein in South Africa. Well thank you very much Mr. Armstrong I know that many of us will be interested to know whether the astronaut in his spacecraft will be able to see this light shining up to him from Africa. Mr. James McBarran is an engineer with a manned spacecraft center in Houston Texas who's been working on the design and modification of the spacesuits worn by the astronauts. Mr. McBarran is this an

actual astronaut space suit? Yes actually this is a space suit which astronaut Cooper will wear in his MA -9 orbital flight. We've been talking about protecting the astronaut from radiation I gather this protects him from a lot of other things. Yes this serves as a pressure garment which encapsulates him an event the cabin should have a cabin decompression. What changes have been made over the course of project mercury? Many improvements and changes have been made to the suit since the initiation of project mercury. Actually the suit for each flight has changed to incorporate the latest design improvements and state -of -the -art. Can you give us some examples? Yes one of the most significant changes is in the helmet. We have them over here. On astronaut Shiras orbital flight the visor seal system of the helmet was of a nomadic type. That is a bottle of oxygen in these spacecraft supplied

pressure to a valve located on a helmet to provide a gas to seal the visor when it was closed like such. You know that completes then the complete pressurization. Right this completely seals the suit. Should the astronaut desire to open the helmet he could press the valve and open open the visor. Additional changes have been made to the helmet for MA -9. This helmet has a mechanical visor seal type system. That is by merely pulling the visor down and pulling an actuating bale the visor is locked. There is no need for a separate oxygen bottle or host connection. Which would limit the number of times he could open and close it wouldn't it? Yes. Actually on the old type system the bottle supplied enough

pressure for approximately 150 actuations. With this helmet the astronaut can open and close the visor up to 5 ,000 times. This actuating bale which seals the visor operates a cam pivot crank assembly located on the side of the helmet. Anything else in the helmet been changed? Yes. There is a provision for an oral temperature mounting on the ear cup. This provides the locations for the astronaut to put the oral temperature probe when he's not using it. On this side of the helmet behind the ear cup is a provision for a radiation film badge. Also the microphones for this flight have been improved. They're more sensitive now. Yes What is this cable hanging on here? This cable is the communication line which connects to the spacecraft to provide communications for the astronaut. Well in addition to the helmet have been

changes in the suit itself. Yes there have been many changes and modifications to the suit. The shoulder sections have been redesigned to provide more mobility in the pressurized condition. Also the wrist sections of the glove have been changed eliminating adjustment straps and providing additional mobility also. One thing it was found during training that the astronaut could inadvertently disconnect the glove by hanging up on a object in the spacecraft with a locking latch. Oh it's glove would come right off. Yes. To prevent this we added an additional latch on the opposite side of the glove so now there are two locks to lock the glove in position. Other changes to the suit include a new ventilation port fitting.

This is where his air conditioning for the suit. This is where the capsule air conditioning puts in the inlet gas to the suit. On previous suits this fitting had a mechanical lock which astronaut had to slide shut an event of his being forced into a situation in the water. Now by removing the hose nozzle the valve seats in position and automatically locks. See what other changes. An additional change to the suit is the relocation of the life vest from a yellow packet which I'm sure most people are familiar with from photographs to a pocket located here on the leg. There's a life vest now. It is out of the way and in a more convenient position than on the front of his suit which entered him in some of his movements. Also on this suit on a leg is a

knife which you astronaut can use should he be in a raft and spacecraft would be thinking he could cut himself loose from the line here. On this leg are the medication equipment carried on the suit. A pocket for a mirror which you access the astronaut has access to in flight. Should he use that for? Should he need to locate something back behind him he couldn't see or for viewing out to the port he wouldn't have to look up. This is carried in this pocket. In another pocket here the astronaut carries a heavy duty bandage type scissors which can be used to completely cut himself out of this suit should the need arise. Also this is used by medical people if it should be necessary. Another major change

to the comfort of the suit is the incorporation of the boot into the torso. Previously the boot was a separate item of the suit. Now it is connected and the boot provides more comfort. Oh they were separate before. Yes they were separate items as before. Also a ventilation channel has been incorporated into the boot to provide more adequate feet ventilation. Oh really have been changes literally than from head to toe. Yes every suit worn by astronauts in flight to date have changed successfully during the program. Well thank you very much. Part of the equipment on every spacecraft is a complete survival kit including a life wrap. This is Mr. James Barnett of NASA's Man Spacecraft Center in Houston,

Texas. One of the men part of a group was responsible for designing and developing this equipment which I imagine Mr. Barnett the astronaut hopes he never has to use. Yes John this is true but none of them want to go along with that. Well now when might he have to use a survival kit? Well the survival kit will not be used only in case of an emergency or a situation where that he would get too hot in his spacecraft and have to come out. This might be if he landed in an area and it took quite a while for them to find the capsule in order to remove him. Yes this is true. I see if I get pretty hot in there or in case he landed in some place where it was not close to the rescue operations. But can you tell us what the actual procedure would be in such an emergency? Yes his normal procedure would be then first as we stated before to stay within the spacecraft but then he should happen to want to get out for some reason. He would come out and first attach his white spacecraft to the side of the spacecraft.

Then he would jump overboard and get into the water and then on his life vest. Now the life vest is located in a pouch on the suit and he takes it from the pouch and squeezes a life vest in the red area. I see he opens right up. Yes. Looks like to try this on to show how it does fit astronaut. How do I do it? Put your hands through the rings. At least he doesn't have to have a microphone with it. And this would be enough to support him in the water. Yes this would support him if he had his suit completely open and filled with water. But at the time that he does go out his suit all ports are closed. All right now presumably I'm bobbing around in the water with this. Now what do I do next? His next sequence would be to get over into the life raft and at this time the astronaut would still have his life vest on. Yes. But he would get over into the life vest. But before we go into the life vest I would like to point out a few difference between this life raft and the life raft that he's used

by the standard military. Our life raft difference considerably in the fact that it is a little bit larger in volume and that it is fabricated as a technique to point it out by two of our men at cruise systems. And if we fabricate on the flat Mr. Renoski and Mr. Shoemaker develop this technique. Our bottom of our life raft is located in the center of the tube. Oh instead of being right along this surface of the bottom of the tube it's actually sort of halfway in between isn't it? Yes sir. Now that for this this gives you a suction cup of tank of water and gives you more stability. Now also we added our stabilizing buckets which these fill with water and it gives it that much more stability. That would be good. Now if you would like to get over in the life raft I'll show you how the canopy is rafing around. Get into it? I'm came. Okay I'm

inside. The astronaut would un -reface canopy, lift in the velcro. I can't get used to these fasteners that sound like everything is ripping apart but I guess we're not doing it any damage. Oh not at all. Okay now take an attention see the valve grow up and over your legs. Oh there's plates though right? Yes. Press the sticks together. Now the head section will then come up and over and fit over your head in a new house that you could pull down. If I did this right I'd have a nice seam right some seal all the way up here. Seal all the way up to protect against sun and salt spray and whatever other conditions he might run in out there. Now where's my survival kit all this time? This survival kit is hanging over the side of the life raft. It's not getting everything wet. Well everything in the survival kit is waterproof. Oh so this makes no difference at all. Can we take a look at some of the rest of the survival kit itself? Yes the survival kit contents.

What do you got in that little pouch in the outside? This is astronaut knife. This knife is designed to use primarily for land survival. Oh that's right he might need this if his raft drifted to land if this were really prolonged. Is that reason? Yes this is true and we designed the survival kit for both land and water survival. In case he landed on the land itself. Yes. If I was in a board situation where then he had to abort the mission it may be a possibility for land. The contents of the survival kit consist of one of a radio transmitter and receiver where he can carry on a conversation between the recovery ships and planes or what the the consists of the radio unit which has batteries and everything the headset and microphone

this is your microphone here. So he can both talk to the rescue people and listen to them get instructions from them. This is true. Oh that is a really compact complete little transmitting and receiving station. It's second aid to be used on a frequency. I noticed you have everything tied in there so that if it was water or rough it wouldn't lose something. Yes this is true everything. Everything is attached to a to a lanyard and tied into here. If he decides to use it or needs to use it he can cut these lanyards and tie it to another lanyard. This is the beacon rescue beacon. What does this do? And the rescue battery. This beacon when attached to the battery gives out an emergency impulse. I want emergency frequency which can be picked up by any type of carrier or any type of aircraft. Oh it's another little transmitting station and it just constantly sends out a it's call letters or some sort of a beacon. Yeah it sends out a beacon. There's no voice connected with this unit at all. And then they can use that to hone in on aircraft that are in the vicinity. Right. With a direction finder some find him.

Also included into the survival kit is his medication packs. Different kinds of medicine similar to what he would carry in his space suit. Correct. Then he has a tube of ointment which is protection from the sun. And you can use bar soap which would be useful in cleaning himself etc. He has a striker and cotton balls and this would be a fire starter. When it matches. Well the perfect the only problem with matches is that if a match should happen to get wet the heads then fall off and you have no longer a striking surface. Yeah this is really funny but we think about here we are in the space age and we go back to a system of making fires used hundreds of for all I know a thousand years ago striking flint and steel. Oh yes. Oh I saw it ran away that's like a cigarette plane. Yes very much so it's just the flint and the cotton is used as a fuel. You have no lot of fluid. He has another rescue aid which is this

beacon. This is a strobe light that is used for nighttime recovery. This is what is it a flashing light of sorts. Yes it gives off a high intensity strobe power. It can be picked up. It's very good. I think I find them at night. Yes. It has an assaulter kit which on this flat has been modified to have a capacity of six points of water. This will put these tablets in and put it in this can into seawater and it will convert it to assault like a freshwater or drinking purposes. All right. To take the place of the two tablets that we remove from this we put in his food. He has food in here. What kind of food? Well the food are small bars of food that are used for during this recovery period. Actually you can go quite a long time without food. Water is the really important thing in survivalism. Yes water is the most important. Food is another minor part of it. He has a spool of nylon

line which is basically 40 feet on this spool and he can use the top equipment that he's got apart or for fishing. If he or wanted to fish he's got fish hooks too. Yes we have two lures. We have one which is a feather lure and one which is a spoon. This is what he uses for bait. I think of everything here. He also has a signal mirror. A signal mirror is very useful in the flashing recovery planes or ships as a method of locating it. There's another portion of the medication portion. This is what we call our personal preference kit. What do you mean by that? Well this is a kit that the astronaut himself will decide what goes into it. Oh each astronaut might choose the different things to go in this. True. What sorts of things will they put in it? Well in this particular instance we have bullion cubes which he can make soup out of. He has a breast tracian ointment which is used for an eye ointment. It's bi -in group.

Halazone tablets for purification of water. This would be used primarily for land. Right. And two chocolate bars which would be an energy food. A sewing kit consisting of a couple of safety pans and needles in thread. Fish and hooks just small freshwater type looks. And a hacksaw blade. Hacksaw blade would be used to cut things that would be impossible to cut with a knife. We're getting down to the bottom man. He also has a carburendum stone including with two needles in the pouch. There's a straight needle and a curved needle. It's to be used for mending suit or if he was on land to care enough portions of his suit to make clothing out of. Right. He also has a four -by -four compress wrapped in aluminum foil. The compress would only be used in case of an emergency where he had a wound and he wouldn't depress it. The aluminum foil would be used to make a bucket for bailing or for cooking and it is

on a lambs revolver. The sun glasses is another important item in that in C you're exposed to the sun directly with reflections from the water. We're giving this for eye protection. Is there anything else in the kit? Yes, the the other item is his drinking water. Now the drinking water is used at the beginning of his recovery period and it's this all -recate would be his backup. Oh, you drink the water that's in there first and hopefully he would be rescued long before he used that up. How much does that hold? This holds approximately a little over a gallon about a gallon and a fine. Well, it certainly seems to me that you've done a wonderful job in taking care of the astronauts. Thank you very much. You've seen some of the behind -the -scenes activity that precedes every flight of Project Mercury in Hangar S here at Cape Canaveral in Florida. But Mercury itself is just one of several steps. Next will come Project Gemini, placing two men in

orbit around the earth and then Project Apollo at which we'll send three men to the moon and back. All steps along the way in man's conquest of space. This is NET, National Educational Television.