GEMINI MANNED FLIGHT PROGRAM TO DATEweb.mit.edu/digitalapollo/Documents/Chapter4/geminimanned.pdf · GEMINI MANNED FLIGHT PROGRAM TO DATE bY LT. COL. JAMES A. McDIVITT, USAF (M) Astronaut

GEMINI MANNED FLIGHT PROGRAM TO DATE bY

LT. COL. JAMES A. McDIVITT, USAF ( M ) Astronaut - NASA/MSC NEIL A. ARMSTRONG

Astronaut - NASA/MSC

SHEPARD: W e ' d like t o talk dur ing this p a r t o f the presentation abou i

the Gemin i p rogram and tu give you a current status repor t on the last three f l ights which we have comple ted this year. A few days ago, a Mar ine col league o f mine and I were having a discussion in the control center a t Houston. This

Mar ine colleague i s now a soft dr ink salesman b u t he happened t o be there fo r the occasion o f the receni e ight-day mission which we completed. W e were discussing a flight which occurred i n M a y o f 1961. The f l igh t p lan ind ica ted so

many seconds of control and rate command, SO many seconds o f control i n manual, so many seconds t o look ou t the window, so many seconds fo r this, so

many seconds fo r that , a completely chalked ful l f l i gh t plan. In the meant ime on the control center f loor discussion was go ing on between the ground and the p i l o t s and they were saying "well i f w e don't ge t t h i s th ing done Tuesday we can do it Thursday."

W e have two gent lemen here to present the last par t o f this session for you. I cou ld spend a grea t deal of t ime introducing bo th of them. They bo th have wide experience, var ied backgrounds, wi th emphasis o f course i n the aero- space and aeronautical professions. They bo th I think are fa i r ly well known t o

you so I won' t take too much t ime in enumerat ing the many accomplishments

which they have achieved t o date. However, I will say tha t t he f i rst o f these gentlemen, J i m McD iv i t t , i s an A i r Force p i lo t , test p i lo t t ra ined, has combat t ime i n KO- rea fo r which he has been decor- ated. H e i s current ly serving with the N A S A i n Houston, was t h e command p i lo t o f the four - day GT-4 mission. The second gentleman, Mr . Ne i l Armstrong,

Korea fo r which he has been de-

McDlV lTT i s Navy trained, combat t ime in i

corated, served as test p i lo t w i th the NACA/NASA including X-15 t ime and i s

current ly wi th the NASA ;n Houston - Nei l Armstrong. Jim and N e i l wi l l you come u p please?

' 1

ARMSTRONG: G o o d morning gentlemen. W e are pleased t o again be a t The Society o f Experimental Test Pilots' Symposium and give our second status repor t on the Gemin i program.

'

Gemin i Manned Flight Program t o Date I35

The Gemin i program objectives are simply stated - t o extend the useful

durat ion o f man and spacecraf t . . . in space: t o develop the equipment and techniques required t o perform useful tasks - specifically the rendezvous. Since our status repor t last year, 4 Geminis have f lown -

Gemin i 2--Unmanned, f i rst all systems f l ight . Gemin i 3-First manned f l ight , f i rst o rb i ta l maneuvering. Gemin i 4 4 day duration. First extra-vehicular activity. Gemin i 5-8 day f l ight .

W e wil l discuss mission phases with reference t o the indiv idual f l ights - start ing wi th the launch.

McDIVITT: I'd like t o start r igh t o f f where we normally start space +lights and that 's a t the launch. Since we have to launch someplace I ' d just like t o show you one o f the typical Dhotographs tha t was taken on one o f our flights and this i s the launch complex down a t the cape and I 'm sure most o f you are fami l iar wi th it bu t I might po in t out some o f the s igni f icant features. [Sl ide I.) You can see r i gh t i n here the Saturn BAB and the Saturn pads, Titan Ill and i t s pads and we started r igh t about there. It i s qu i te easy t o see where these things

start and we want t o show you how they continue. Now you know in our launches we d idn ' t have any major problems. Each and every f l igh t g o t in to o rb i t i he

way it was supposed to. W e did have a few minor problems though and they

are worth ment ioning because I think they sort o f demonstrate our capabi l i ty t o handle o f f nominal occurrences without any catastrophic effects. As you know, Gemin i 2 had one a t tempt tha t I guess we wouldn' t say was completely successful b u t it certainly d id show tha t we had the capabi l i ty bu i l t in to our booster t o shut the th ing down if we had any malfunctions dur ing tha t very c r i t i - ca l t ime between engine igni t ion and lift off. I 'm no t sure you're all aware of it bu t there are three seconds where we are held down on the pad with bolts and dur ing this short per iod o f t ime we sense fo r malfunctions and our malfunc- t ioning sensing system detected a hydraulic failure and shut the booster down. There were some pre t ty long faces b u t they could have been a l o t longer if t ha t th ing had fallen over.

Gemin i 2 and Gemin i 3 also had a slight discrepancy, the same kind o f discrepancy on bo th fl ights, they had somewhat lo f ted t ra jector ies which meant tha t the booster wasn't necessarily f ly ing its op t imum path in to orbi t . The reason fo r this was tha t we were f ly ing wi th somewhat hotter engines than we had an t i - c ipated. Our thrust levels were a l i t t le higher. W e reprogrammed the p i tch pro- g ram t o take advactage o f this higher thrust and on Gemin i 4 and up we have a slightly d i f fe ren t p i tch program tha t seems t o be working just right.

~

f

, I On Gemin i 4 you are probab ly well aware tha t the erector d idn ' t lower

which really d idn ' t a f fec t the f l igh t o f Gemin i 4 bu t could be a serious problem on a rendezvous mission because you already have the Agena launched and you just don ' t have a teal long window t o launch the Gemin i in. W e also had an umbi l ical hang-up tha t broke loose just af ter l i f t -of f .

Gemin i 5, o f course, we had an at tempt, t ha t af ter a few problems with f i l l ing the hydrogen system fo r the fuel cells, a T M drop-out, a power gl i tch, a

I36 THE SOCIETY OF EXPERIMENTAL TEST PILOTS

thunderstorm, and a few other things, it became apparent tha t t ha t wasn't the day to t ry it and late i n the af ternoon we all dec ided t o qo home. But the next

t ime we t r ied we had a real on-t ime launch. As a matter o f f ac t I don ' t know if you're all aware o f it bu t we launched, I think it was .38 seconds, ahead of

t ime and we do things i n f l ight in elapsed t ime bu t since the elapsed ,time rounded o f f the way the computers round it c f f was in the 59 minutes and 59 seconds we were go ing t o have to carry tha t odd second fo r 8 days we arbi t rar i ly said we were 38 hundredths o f a second later and rounded it o f f t o an even number and flew wi th it. This t ime i s very important.

The one anomaly tha t we had dur ing Gemin i 5 tha t was o f some i ign i f i cance was the pogo. Now th i s pogo was discussed a t last year's symposium and I 'm sure you al l remember exactly what we ra id b u t i t ' s really a longi tudinal oscil la- t ion tha t i s due t o a f i rst stage mechanical hydraul ic-dynamic feed back and has been taken care o f through a fix which pu t a couple o f th ings on the booster

we cal l horns and they are tuned so t ha t they have the proper amount o f air pressure. There was a slight procedural error i n the tuning o f these horns bor the second a t tempt at Gemin i 5 so we g o t a slightly larger than normal pogo. M a y we have the next slide please. (Sl ide 2 . )

This i s a slide o f the comparative pogos on all the fl ights. You can see r igh t here tha t Gemin i 5 at about 130 seconds had a pogo tha t was about .38g peak ampl i tude. I t d idn ' t incapaci tate the pilots by any sense o f the word bu t o f course those of you who heard them talk ing obviously not iced the up and down frequency of Gordo 's voke . I ' m not sure it was al l pogo. You can see tha t on Gemin i 4 we had one tha t was about .22 maximum and the other f l ights were considerably lower. I m igh t add tha t the spec value was 259 a t peak.

Dur ing the launch we have B l o t of things tha t the pilots do. First I ' d like to show you what we see on the outside, what the people on the ground look at. M a y I have the movie please. Fortunately the booster doesn't jump around like that. Now that 's a p re t ty view from the outside bu t unfortunately we don t

enjoy tha t view f rom the inside because there isn't any automat ic abo r t system on the Gemini , this i s a manual function. W e have certain key displays tha t we monitor dur ing f l igh t and because a l o t o f these things are very t ime crit ical, especially those close t o the ground, we are kept p re t ty busy and I ' d like t o i l lustrate the kind o f things tha t we look a t dur ing f l ight . (Slide 3 . ) First of a l l we have the three axes a t t i tude bal l , we have rate needles, one here fo r ro!I. and a p i tch and yaw needle. W e have tank pressure gauges tha t monitor the

f i rst and second stage fuel and oxidizer tanks. W e have a t imer tha t starts a t l i f t -o f f . no t igni t ion, bu t l i f t -o f f . W e have engine l ights, two stage one engine lights and one stage two engine light that indicate whether the engines are oper- a t ing a t fu!l thrust or not, ii secondary guidance l igh t and an a t t i tude overrate l ight . These are the instruments tha t w e monitor dur ing launch and the react ion t ime tha t you have to the ve;y I O N alt i tude abor t situations that ! ment ioned are very short. As we go higher and higher and higher we can relax these almost , instantaneous requirements bu t we have a number o f d i f fe ren t kinds o f abo r t , rules and d i f fe ren t modes that we go through. As you're all well aware t h e Gemin i ha; e ject ion seats and Jrom 0 t o 50 seconds, which i s somewhere i n the order o f I 2 t o 15 thousand feet we use the eject ion seat mode i f we have t o ge t o f f the booster. Above 50 seconds and up unt i l we reach t h e veloci ty o f 21,000 feet per second which i s on t h e order of 5 minutes f ly ing t ime, we salvo f i re the re t ro rockets to come o f f the booster. W e shut the booster down and

I

Gemin i Manned Fl iaht Proaram t o Date I 3 7

salvo f i re the re t ro rocksts. Above 21,000 feet per second, f rom about 5 minutes and 10 seconds till about 5 minutes and 30 seconds, we just separate f rom +he booster. W e shut the booster down, separate in a standard manner, turn around, do a normal retro f i re and re-entry. There i s a po in t at which we can actually insert ourselves into o rb i t i f the booster shuts down f rom a fuel deplet ion situation. W e can actually separate f rom the booster and thrust on in to orbi t . The

amount of capabi l i ty tha t we have on board spacecraft varies with the part icular conf igurat ion we're f ly ing.

I 'd like to talk just a bit about t h e sensations tha t we have dur ing t h e power phase. A t l i f t -o f f , although there i s a l o t of v ibrat ion and noise and no

real h igh acce!eration it i s very obvious when you l i f t -o f f , there i s a change in frequency and ampl i tude o f the vibrations, not great, bu t just enough t o really clue you tha t you've l i f ted of f . Also our clock r igh t there starts counting. These

vibrations bui ld up i n intensity unt i l we've reached maximum Q, then d rop o f f abrupt ly as we go supersonic which i s just shortly thereafter. It i s a very quiet f l i gh t f rom there on. The pogo on our f l igh t was hardly not iceable although we reached a level o f about ,229. I just barely not iced it and Ed never even knew t h a t we had it. Staging has been a very smooth and uninteresting type kind o f th ing as far as the vibrations and motions go. Engine shutdown i s another very smooth thing. When the engine shuts o f f and when you're in o rb i t the booster and the spacecraft are very stable.

I ' d like to show you a movie o f what t h e gauges actually look like. This particular movie was taken in Gemin i 2, our unmanned launch and it shows some rather interesting things, bu t before we start I want t o explain one thing.

You' l l be looking a t the al l -at t i tude indicator and it wi l l look like the spacecraft i s go ing over i n yaw. The situation here i s tha t the spacecraft i s not mounted in the same axis system tha t the booster is. We 'vs had t o position the space- c ra f t on the booster in such a manner that there would be a clear ejection path and we wouldn' t 5ave to worry about the towers and we wouldn' t have t o worry about eject ing in the wrong direction. So we had the spacecraft mounted on t o p o f the booster such tha t dur ing launch it looks iike the spacecraft i s yawing over b u t i t 's booster pi tch and i t 's kind o f a confusing i tem there. I ' d like t o show the movie now.

This wili be a l i t t le faster than normal t ime. There's igni t ion! You can see the first-stage tank pressures coming down. We 've go t the rol l program where the booster i s a l igning us up with t h e f l igh t path. Now we've started the pi tch program. These are rate needles here. You can see the fuel pressure coming down, the stage two pressures are nice and stable here. We ' re go ing through or approaching maximum Q region here and you can see the slight oscillations tha t we have. One thing tha t i s qui te interesting i s r igh t af ter staging. W e

This is a pre-program thing and we're coming up on staging. It should occur around 2:23. And you' l l see these needles rise t o the t o p indicat ing tha t . , . there they go , we've staged, now you can see the pressure i s coming down. We should have guidance in i t iate here and you'l l see the th ing p i tch over rather abrupt ly - there it goes. That's when t h e guidance actually starts. It 's a l l open loop up unt i l tha t t ime and tha t was radio guidance coming in. I don ' t know if you can notice it back there bu t these two needles are independent of each

~ other and i f one fails they fa i l up indicat ing tha t the pressure has not .:allen and we have two completely independent power sources fo r these. That i s an

I have a per iod o f about ten seconds before we actually ge t guidance in i t iate.

, '

I 38 THE SOCIETY OF EXPERIMENTAL TEST PILOTS

McDIVITT: There i s more than just maneuvering around i n space. W e thought the problem o f what it i s like t o be f ly ing fo rmat ion essentially i n space would be rather interesting to investigate especially since we're go ing $0 have t o d o tha t on Gemin i 6 and on al l o f our rendezvous missions so we

incorpora ted a l i t t le station keeping or format ion f ly ing on Gemin i 4. Since the only ob jec t we had was our booster we t r ied to uti l ize it to the best advantage. The other modif icat ion we made t o the booster was the installation o f a pa i r o f f lashing l ights tha t were diametr ical ly opposed and mounted abou t the midd le o f the stage. The overall f l i gh t p lan cal led for us t o come o f f t he booster, tu rn around, thrust back towards the booster and g e t i n fo rmat ion w i th it and stay i n fo rmat ion wi th it around the few minutes o f dayl ight t ha t we had, then the darkness o f about 45 minutes, and take some pictures o f it i n the next dayside pass o f about 45 minutes then prepare fo r EVA, then d o EVA the next thing. This was a l i t t le crowded b u t I think it migh t have been done. As the booster shut down, instead o f separating a t the normal t ime o f 20 seconds a f te r engine shut down we dec ided we'd delay unt i l 30 seconds so tha t we could d a m p any booster spacecraf t rates tha t we might have. W h e n the booster shut down though it was very stable. W e had combinat ion rates o f less than .2 o f a degree per second as read o f f t he instrument station. However, I did t r y t o d a m p these rates even more b y using a translation thruster rather than the a t t i tude thrusters

which for this part icular mass combinat ion went r i gh t th rough the CG and really d idn ' t af fect the at t i tude. So we d i d a t t i tude control wi th our translation

thrusters. W e separated the spacecraft and started turning around. At separation, for some reason or other we feel t ha t we g o t a larger relat ive veloci ty change between the two vehicles than we had an t ic ipa ted and this cou ld be due t o two d i f fe ren t effects. O n e is the pop gun e f fec t o f f i r ing the a f t - f i r ing thrusters down onto the dome o f the second stage, bu i ld ing u p a pressure between

the two vehicles so tha t when they came apar t they were sort of pushed apar t or a very like th ing of thruster impingement on the second stage as we actual ly f i red away from it. Whatever the case, the postf l ight investigation showed tha t we probab ly separated with three or four fee t per second more than we'd an- t ic ipated. W e fel t tha t we came o f f the booster a l i t t le sideways. However, t he instrumentat ion d idn ' t subsrantiate this postf l ight b u t it fe l t like we came o f f p i tch ing and yawing all a t the same time. N o t a g rea t amount b u t a l i t t le

indicat ion o f an abor t or at1 abo r t requirement - if both needles fa l l past ser- ta in limits. N o w you can see tha t we're sort o f in a steady state condi t ion here wi th very few oscillations and it i s a nice qu ie t r ide. St i l l interest ing bu t quiet. R igh t about this t ime i s where we would change t o a d i f fe ren t kind o f abor t o r we would just shut the booster down and turn around and d o a normal re t ro fire. There's SECO, which i s a second stage cut-off. On this part icular f l i gh t the spacecraf t was rol led around, turned around, re t ro f i red and re-entered. I think tha t gives you a l i t t le insight in to our launch problems and the techniques tha t we use.

ARMSTRONG: A n impor tan t Gemin i objective i s the demonstrat ion o f precise orb i ta l maneuvers. In add i t ion t o the obvious requirements of rendezvous and docking, maneuvers are f requent ly performed t o change o rb i t size.

Gemin i 3 was the f i rst t o demonstrate the feasibil i ty. Both Gemin i 4 and 5 maneuvered t o raise the per igee to provide increased orb i ta l l i fetime. Both Gemin i 3 and 4 lowered the per igee t o 45 N.M. just pr ior t o retrof i re t o pro- v ide an early o rb i t decay in case the retros fa i led t o fire.

Gemin i Manned Fl ight Program t o Date I39

bit. W e turned around and as we started the turn-around it was just l ike be ing i n a snow storm. W e used pyrotechnics t o separate the spacecraf t and the booster and we had l i t t le bits and pieces o f metal and flakes and I don ' t know what al l ou t there. W e separated the nose fa i r ing and the fai r ing fo r t he I R sensors a t the same t ime and we had bits and pieces o f t ha t a l l over. It was qu i te interesting. Through all the debris I f inal ly found the booster. It wasn't qu i te tha t bad. W e were slightly ou t o f plane a t t he time, which surprised me, b u t here again it could have been due t o two things. The thrust t ha t we app l ied t o change the a t t i tude actually has a translation component w i th it and it could have thrusted us o f f in the direct ion perpendicular t o our o rb i t o r it could have been due t o th is kind o f catawampus separation tha t we thought we had. As soon as we turned around, I was qui te surprised t o f i nd tha t t he booster was tumbl ing a t a relatively higher rate o f about 8 t o I O degrees a second and we really d idn ' t ant ic ipate this unt i l maybe an o rb i t or two later since the booster had no stabil ization whatsoever. A t the end o f an o rb i t though this ra te had actually increased t o about 40 degrees a second and it was really r ipp ing around. The flashing lights were visible as soon as we g o t around even though the sun was shining on it and it was very br ight ly l ighted. W e thrusted back towards the booster and I thought we had kil led o f f our relative velocity, +he indications tha t we had f rom on-board instrumentation showed tha t we had ap- p l ied somewhat more velocity than we had separated with and we should be closing with it. So I went ahead and started al igning my inert ia l p lat form which takes about ten or f i f teen minutes t o ge t an accurate al ignment and since this was only the second f l igh t we wanted t o make sure we would be i n shape t o retrof i re a t the end o f the f i rst o rb i t i f we had to. During this per iod of t ime the booster d ropped below the spacecraft and out o f the view o f the window b u t it d idn ' t seem t o be moving part icular ly fast t he last l i m e I saw it. A f te r about f i ve or s i x minutes o f a l ignment I pi tched down t o f i nd it and it had moved a l o t far ther away than I ' d expected so I pi tched back u p t o al ignment a t t i tude and pu t the p la t fo rm t o o rb i t rate or a mode tha t keeps it al igned with the local vert ical and then pi tched back down and started chasing the booster. Because o f the f l igh t p lan we really d idn ' t have the t ime available t o

us t o per fo rm a rendezvous where we would retrof i re essentially and d rop down below the booster, and then because o f the o rb i t change essentially catch u p below it and then come back up and catch it and since we d idn ' t have any sensors either onboard ra te or on ground tracking tha t was available t o us i? would have been a l i t t le b i t d i f f i cu l t t o start a rendezvous f rom unknown in i t ia l conditions. So we elected t o use sort o f a brute fo rce technique where instead of assuming tha t we were i n o rb i t , we just assumed tha t we were f ly ing across

the earth like i n an airplane which i s sort o f a recti l inear approach. I feel t ha t this would have worked ou t i f we had had the proper kind of l igh t ing on the booster b u t unfortunately we lost it.

Let me talk a l i t t le bit about the l ight ing here. The l ights could be seen

flashing i f we were close t o the booster in the dayt ime bu t when the booste- was u p against the l igh ted earth background and it was some distance away these lights, a l though very intense, were no t visible. At booster-sunset, which wasn't necessarily sunset on the ground, the shape and size o f the booster dis- appear almost instantly and the l ights appear a t the same time. It 's a very quick thing. These two l ights tha t we had which were diametr ical ly opposed were excellent f o r iudg ing range when you could see bo th lights because the distance


between them could never be fore-shortened by part icular a t t i tude positions b u t because o f this they weren't always visible. A single flashing l igh t a t n ight

just d idn ' t provide the kind o f range and range-rate informat ion tha t I needed. So dur ing the nightside we t r ied t o close with the booster and we did. A post flight analysis based on our at t i tudes and the thrust and the trajectory o f the booster showed tha t we closed th i s t o a minimunr distance o f around 400 fee t and probab ly a maximum distance o f around 2,000 feet. At tha t t ime, the booster had been tumbl ing and I could see the double l ights and had an idea o f where we were bu t shortly thereafter I d idn ' t see the second l igh t f o r qui te some t ime. I had no idea where we were and the next t ime we saw the l ights it was readi ly apparent t ha t the booster had dr i f ted a considerable distance f rom us. Shortly thereafter we came out in to the dayl ight and the l ights disappeared instantane- ously. W e could see the size and shape of the booster and it was between a mile and two miles away and it was rapidly disappearing. W e followed it through the dayl ight side u p unt i l the Un i ted States por t ion o f the pass and a t ,hat t ime we had elected t o not pursue the booster anymore. W e had a fuel budget tha t was l im i ted fo r this phase o f the mission pr ior t o f l i gh t and we stopped short o f the al loted amount o f fuel we had set aside fo r this bu t we had a number o f things tha t we were go ing to d o and it depended entirely on how ;he mission went which o f these we selected t o do. I t d idn ' t look like we :ould close with the booster unless we took all the fuel tha t could have been used fo r OAMS retrof i re and we elected no+ to do this a t t he time.

! think tha t the problems we faced were pr imari ly the l ight ing, secondarily the tumbl ing booster which wasn't exactly what we'd ant ic ipated. The fuel budget and the f l igh t p lan considerations sort of l imi ted the number o f approaches we could use and we happened t o lose one o f our a f t f i r ing translation thrusters dur ing the por t ion o f th is phase o f t h e mission which meant instead o f thrust ing 200 pounds in one direct ion we were thrusting 100 pounds i n tha t d i rect ion and 50 pounds in another direction. I do feel t ha t this i s a phase that can be done i n exactly the same conf igurat ion tha t we flew wi th i n a spacecraf t with no

radar, a l though the radar would be nice, and I feel t ha t we d o need a l i t t le better l ight ing on the booster and we need a slightly di f ferent arrangement on the fuel a l lotment so t ha t we can spend a lo t o f fuel early i n the mission t o ge t close t o the booster before we ge t into the darkness.

ARMSTRONG: Rendezvous is , of course, one o f our major obijectives. (Sl ide 4.) The technique t o be used on our in i t ia l rendezvous f l ights i s relativelv straight forward. The spacecraft achieves an o rb i t parallel t o and below the target. I t s lower o rk i t requires a higher veloci ty and therefore it i s catching the target. As a predetermined elevation i s reached, a veloci ty increment i s added along the line o f sight. To begin a transfer t ra jectory toward the ta r - get , several mid-course corrections are added pr ior t o the rendezvous reaching i t s terminal phase. The maneuvers are normally computed on the spacecraft computer, using data ob ta ined f rom the spacecraft 's radar and inert ia l platform. Gemin i 5 was the f i rst spacecraft t o carry the radar set and the rendezvous calculations i n i t s computer. In order t o give them their f i rst f l i gh t test, this rendezvous evaluation pod was carried in the spacecraft. [Sl ide 5.) It weighed 77 Ibs. and carr ied flashing strobe lights and a radar transponder. The plan was t o eject t h e pod f rom the spacecraft, then perform a series o f maneuvers t o pu t the spacecraft in the position shown in the slide wi th the rendezvous evalua- t ion p o d as the target. Radar measurements would be taken, computat ions and

Gemin i Manned Fl ight Program t o Date 141

maneuvers performed, and the rendezvous completed. providing a good check o f the entire rendezvous system.

(Slide 6 . ) , shows t h e pod was ejected, bu t , as you know, the entire e f fo r t was abandoned shortly after, when a cryo- genic oxygen heater fa i led requir ing the computer, radar, and plat form t o be shut down t o minimize electrical load. However, 23 minutes o f REP radar da ta were recorded. A n ident ical transponder was located a t Cape Kennedy and tracked successfully. Lock-ons were achieved a t ranges of over 400 miles. Min i - mum range read in the cockpi t was 166.72 N.M. comparing with closest ap - proach computed by 2 ground methods as 165 and 171 N.M. Azimuth and ele- vat ion data appear t o be good. This kind o f informat ion indicates tha t on-board orb i ta l navigat ion can be a pract ical real i ty, using a few well p laced beacons around the world. A rendezvous with an imaginary ta rge t was successfully per- fo rmed on Gemin i 5 using a series o f four maneuvers based on ground compu- tations and ground based radar coverage. It was a closed loop problem with any maneuver error on one burn requir ing a correct ion t o the next. Maneuvers are performed to less than I fps accuracy wi th .I fps being the object ive.

McDIVITT: A s you know, we also looked in to the f ie ld o f extra vehicular

act iv i ty for the first t ime dur ing th i s past year. I 'd like to talk about tha t fo r just a few moments here. To accomplish t h i s , you realize tha t we had t o develop a l i t t le extra equipment. This wasn't the standard kind o f equipment tha t we flew in the spacecraft. So we developed a, or mod i f ied really, a pressure suit. W e developed an extra vehicular l i fe support system and a maneuvering unit.

May I have the first slide please. (Sl ide 7.) The pressure suit which you see here i s t h e same type o f pressure sult

f lown on Gemin i 3 bu t w i t h some modifications. It was cal led the G4C suit and was developed specificallv for extra vehicular activity. The single zipper closure was changed t o a double zipper. W e installed auto locking with quick discon- nects so that in case one o f t h e hoses w d s pulled out the disconnect would au to- mat ical ly close and t h e suit pressure wouldn't dump. It had a thermal micro- meteoroid outer garment that was installed over the normal legnet and bladder that we had. It had a t r ip ie visor. The first one was an extra thick plexiglass as a pressure sealer. The middle one was a Lexan - impact visor. We had broken a few visors in t ra in ing so we thought we ought to t ry t o protect tha t - it'; sort of a sickening sound to hear it go psssss, and it does, and then the outer visor was a go ld coated sun visor. You can see the reflections in the go ld co3t r igh t there - it turned out t o be a pret ty good mirror.

The extra vehicular l i f e support system consisted of three major units, umbi l ical -this go ld coated umbi l ical , t h e chest pack r igh t across here and Y connection, which you cannot see. The umbilical provided oxygen from t h e jpace- c ra f t t o the suit. The suit-regulation unit was within the EVA pack there. It had electrical hard lines i n the tether to provide communications to the spacecraft and carr ied the biomedical instrumentation, I t also acted as a safety tether. The

chest pack, as I indicated here, provided The pressure regulat ion and it also provided a supply of emergency oxygen. Emergency oxygen was provided t o +he suit through this very small tube tha t ran up and in to the helmet through ihe

normal feeding port. The emergency oxygen was manually turned on w i th a lever r igh t down in th i s area. So, i f the suit pressure started dumping fo r j ome reeson, for a break in the umbi l ical or f rom the umbi l ical hose actually :ailing o f f , we could go ahead and turn on the emergency supply and hopeful ly ge t back

This photo, taken by Pete Conrad

I

I

1


in the spacecraf t and seal the hatch within the e igh t minutes tha t we had available. The Y connections were really a normal suit connection mod i f ied so tha t it had two inlets and they were down i n here and are very d i f f i cu l t to see. W e

prov ided this Y connect ion so tha t in case we g o t back in to the spacecraf t and we couldn' t g e t the spacecraf t pressurized we could a t least change back t o the spacecraf t suit loop without depressurizing the suit, which would have mads

it senseless t o bother changing back. W e prac t iced this a number o f j imes a n d al though d i f f i cu l t it could be done. Ed with his long arms was qu i te adep t a t ge t - t i ng a t all these l i t t le handles.

The maneuvering un i t which you see r i gh t here i s a very simple device. (Sl ide 8.) It has three nozzles on it, one r i gh t here which you use t o g o t o +he rear, t ha t part icular nozzle puts ou t two pounds o f thrust and has t w o nozzles on the end which p u t ou t a pound o f thrust each so tha t we really had two pounds o f thrust in each direction. The to ta l impulse was 40 pound seconds and it could change your veloci ty by about 6 fee t per second. I t carr ied about two- thirds o f a pound o f oxygen and 4,000 psi.

N o w the part icular techniques tha t we used in f l igh t were developed using the zero g KC-135 a t Wright-Patterson and a mock-up o f the spacecraf t and our own air bear ing tab le a t the Manned Spacecraf t Center. In general, t he technique fo r maneuvering i s t o keep the thrust l ine through the CG fo r no a t t i tude ra te changes: a t the ship thrust l ine away f rom the CG t o achieve a combined

tha t the un i t was used in. It i s held in the r i gh t hand, a camera i s mounted on the top, the oxygen supply i s here, it 's p laying back through the C.G. and :his would be typ ica l o f a translation without any a t t i tude changes. I n actual f l i gh t we experienced no surprises. The training had been adequate. In the maneuvering, we found tha t i f we d o it slowly, we d o it best. I think tha t the main fh ing we brought back is t ha t EVA i s practical, and if you d o it slowly it 's very safe.

I ' d like t o show you some of the fi lms tha t we actually took on board. M a y I have the movie please.

( M O V I E )

change in r a t e of t rans la t i on and ra te of attitude. This i s t he typ ica l posi t ion

I guess the main th ing you ge t ou t o f t ha t i s t ha t Ed needed more air and I guess if we'd used some o f the air tha t we used u p talk ing and pu t it i n a bo t t le we would have been al l r ight . Nei l , would you like t o carry on here.

ARMSI'RONG: Orb i ta l activit ies include experiments i n four categories - engineering, scientif ic, medical, and Department o f Defense.

( I ) Engineering experiments and operat ional checks are generally speci- f i ed b y the Manned Spacecraft Center. O n e example i s determining suitable landmarks f o r t he ADOIIO navigat ion system. Such landmarks, necessary fo r taking sextant sightings fo r f ixina the smcecraf t 's oosi- t ion, should be easily ident i f iable, have high contrast, and have generally clear weather.

Slide 9 Sultanate of Muscat & Oman Slide I O Ar i l i n & Crooked Islands Slide I I Florida Keys Slide I 2 Gibra l ta r Slide 13 Baja Cal i fornia

O the r typ ica l operat ional experiments include such things as U H F and H F communicat ion checks, antenna checks, measurement o f the electrostatic charge bui ldup on the spacecraft, and photographs o f the earth's l imb.


McDIVITT: As you can well imagine, the scientif ic community has an obvi-

ous interest in the Gemin i program as a base fo r specific experiments and fo r general observations. The specific experiments have covered the broad fields o f astronomy, weather, and geology. A single astronomical experiment and in -

vestigation o f ( ? ? ? ? ? ) l igh t has been performed t o date. Weather experiments using bo th cameras and spectrometers have been completed. These have covered the range f rom broad photographic coverage t o measurements of indi- v idual clouds. These results have been compared with ground and aircraf t measurements and unmanned weather satell i te TV transmissions, such as the TIROS.

I ' d like t o show you three slides o f weather phenomena tha t I sort o f .reel are classic and the weather people sort o f agree with me. I think you might .find them interesting. M a y I have the f i rst one please. (Sl ide 14.)

This one was also i n LIFE magazine. I t ' s a storm o f f the coast o f Morocco and it's about the classic type o f a circulation tha t you f i nd in a storm center. I t 's a real beauty. The next one please. (Slide 15.)

Any wind tunnel experts here certainly see the vortices tha t a re fo rmed behind this part icular Isle. This i s an island o f f the coast o f Baja, Cal i fornia. The low level a i r f low i s i n this direction. I t 's B r m i n g a vort ice tha t comes around in this direct ion, around and ou t this direct ion, around and ou t this direction, and then sort o f poops ou t ou t there. These are phenomena tha t weather men have fe l t occurred bu t have never really had photographic p roo f t ha t they are really there. They have their theories and they say tha t these are th ings +hat

should occur bu t they just can' t ge t fa r enough away f rom the darn things to

take good pictures o f them t o substantiate their theories. We've, I guess, helped

prove and disprove some theories. I 'd like t o show one other that's sort o f a classic. (Slide 16.)

That i s the ent i re state o f Florida there i n the summer time. The typ ica l southeastern Un i ted States summertime weather wi th the pu f fy C u all over tha land mass. The water has no clouds over it t o speak of. Lake Okeechobee, another water mass, does no t have the problem o f the rising air, unstable air t ha t you might f ind, the sinking air over the water, the rising air over the land, +he nice cumulus clouds out l in ing the whole thing. You can actually see up the coast t o probably Nor th Carol ina, I ' d guess, and then you can see the coastline is really out l ined b y this particular type of c loud with a l o t o f thunderstorms i n the background r i gh t across the edge. Slide o f f please.

The geological experiments have been completely photographic i n nature. They've included targets of opportuni ty that have been selected b y the crew in- f l ight based on their previous training in geology, and broad coverage of areas tha t were selected pref i ight and programmed in such a manner as t o pro- v ide stereo-pairs fo r photographic interpretation.

I ' d like t o show two slides t o indicate the typ ica l ta rge t o f opportuni ty. M a y I have the f i rst slide please. (Slide 17.)

This i s the Richaet crater i n Afr ica. The crater itself i s r igh t here and there should be another small crater either r igh t here or r igh t here. I 'm too

close t o see. Oh here it i s r igh t here. There have been aerial photographs taken o f this area, obviously, because o f i t s interest t o geologists, bu t they have never really had the th ing taken on such a large scale where you can actually photograph the Richaet crater and the other smaller crate1 next t o it and although they've been land mapped and aerial photographed they've never really had them all on the same picture and, o f course, they f i nd them qu i te interesting.


The next slide please. (Sl ide 18.) These are Seif dunes in Arabia. These particular sand dunes are a couple

o f hundred miles across. I t ' s roughly 75 miles f rom one edge t o .the other edge

o f these photos i f they are taken straight down. This i s sort o f an obl ique shot so we can probabiy see on the order of 125 t o 175 miles across .there. Those sand dunes vary f rom a mile wide to more than tha t and they are probably 400 to 800 fee t high. It 's p re t ty obvious why all the caravan trails run the same direc- t ion over there because you just can ' t ge t over these things. All the t ra f f i c i s this way whether you wan1 to go tha t way or not. These are .formed by wind and it sort o f gives t h e geologists a l i t t le ipsight in to the or ig in o f .the countries tha t they can f ind tha t have th i s t ype o f rock format ion rather than a sand For-

mation. N c w our experiepce has shown tha t ob ta in ing good photos of a preselected ob jec t i s really a two-step process. First i s the acqu get, which I think i s the most di f f icul t . The second i s the photograph itself. W e found tha t a high contrast landmark, just like the one tha t Ne i l was showing you before, near the ta rge t i s essential t o early acquisit ion. Now you don ' t necessarily have t o have the ta rge t as high contrast bu t you need .this high contrast object near it. Topographical features such as mountain ranges without any

contrast are pract ical ly no help. You can see a mountain range bu t the small heights tha t these things have with respect t o your own al t i tude, make +he al t i -

tude changes on the ground almost insignificant, while the water- land inter- faces, which sometimes have no al t i tude change, because of their h igh contrast are excellent. Techniques f o r taking a photograph vary really wi th the t ype oi camera mounting. The hand held cameras o f course require only that the space- c ra f t be po in ted in the general d i rect icn o f the target. O n the other hand, a vehicle mounted camera requires a very accurate point ing and tracking with the

spacecraf t t o ob ta in bo th high resolution and non-smear photographs. Normal ly you would expect a high magnif icat ion comera t o be mounted t o the space- c ra f t and i f you just let the th ing pass through the ta rge t , you're go ing t o g e t smear. Even though you're a long ways away and the rates are small it st i i l smears when you t r y t o reproduce them. They are a very high f ide l i t y photograph. I'd like t o show two sets o f photographs now. They bo th have high con- t rast objects near them. Just t o i l iustrate the kind o f things tha t you see as you

approach a ta rge t t ha t you want t o take a picture of , whether it be a c i ty, a salt mine, an air f ie ld, a road, a boat or anything, th is i s the kind o f view tha t you get. N o w the f i rst three slides were taken with the hand held camera. They show the approach in to the El Cent ro area. W e could select any ob jec t in t h e picture and say tha t that's what we want t o take the picture of. This i s sort o f what the p i lo t sees as he comes in. May I have the f i rst slide. (Sl ide 19.)

You can see th i s i s the Pacific Ocean, Cal i fornia along here, Santa Cata- lina and San Clemente Islands down there, the Salton Sea ou t here and +he El Cent ro area r igh t down in here and you can see tha t you are way. way ou t there and you can see how well you can see tha t area just because o f the contrast oi the water-land interface. Whi le we were over i n here it would be really diffi- cu l t t o pick ou t a ta rge t in tha t area, even when you ge t close. Sort o f keep this view in mind. and we'l l run through the next two slides. Next one please. [Sl ide 20.) Here we have the Salton Sea again and the El Cent ro area and the Canal. Next slide please. [S l ide 21 . ) Here we are just about over i t , looking down on an obl ique shot. You can pick ou t the E l Cent ro air f ie ld down +here, a l l the cul t ivated fields and the town o f El Cent ro i s down here. You can see

Gemin i Manned Fliaht Proaram t o Date I45

how the contrast helps you out. N o w I'd like t o have the next slide please. (Sl ide 22.) This i s a slide o f the M i d d l e East. This i s t he N i l e Del ta r i gh t i n here w i th Ca i ro over there, t he Red Sea back here, the Suez Cana l through here, t he Gu l f o f Suez there, a l i t t le canal t ha t runs in to the N i l e Delta here, Israel i s u p here, I think this i s Egypt and Iran back here and Saudia Arab ia down there. It 's pract ical ly the seed o f civil ization as we know it. I n the N i l e Delta r i gh t there there are something i n the order o f 23 mil l ion people l iv ing and i f you've g o t keen eyes you can see the pyramids r i gh t there. That's an eye test. Everybody tha t doesn't pass can' t fly. Now keeping this i n mind, I'd like t o show you a movie tha t we made t ry ing t o take a, no t t ry ing, we actually accomplished this, taking a picture o f an air f ie ld near a l i t t l e town i n Egypt. W e had preselected th i s ta rge t and we said this i s what we're going t o take a picture of. W e had a l i t t le letdown chart kind o f th ing t o show what the air f ie ld looked like. W e had a l i t t le W o r l d Aeronaut ical Char t t o show us the surrounding area and we'd been over th is area before so we knew what the contrast was. Obviously th is cul t ivated area with al l the trees on and the high contrast d idn ' t show like tha t on the map. The map was almost useless. The f i rst t ime I saw it I thought it was a b i g lava f low tha t f lowed ou t in to the Mediterranean. W e ' d been over it and we knew what the contrast was and we'd t r ied t o f i nd a f ie ld before. W e knew about where it was. It's r i gh t i n there. Now, we'l l start out wi th the movie and it'll show us looking around over here and you can see par t o f the Suez Canal, the N i le River, and some o f the Gulf o f Suez. W h y don ' t we start the movie now. This i s a par t o f the Gu l f there and we're ge t t ing over towards the Canal. Here's the N i le River r igh t i n here and we're looking fo r a place r igh t down in

here. There's the Canal. This i s three power b y the way, it isn't one power. W e ' l l sort o f t rack down th i s way now. All I 'm using i s a typical f ixed gun sight in the spacecraft. I 'm wandering a l i t t le bit. This i s wi thout any a t t i tude reference inside the spacecraft, no point ing commands. We ' re lobking fo r a ta rge t t ha t i s r igh t down here. I t 's not visible yet. You'll ge t a zoom effect as we approach th i s thing. We ' re hundreds of miles out, obviously, and these things ge t larger.

Now the ta rge t i s down here someplace and I 'm a f ra id I can't see it. It moves down in to the corner here and it 's p re t ty obvious when we pass r igh t over it. That's it r igh t there. It 's an air f ie ld and it'll ge t larger as we come closer. It 's r i gh t i n this area. OK, I 've seen it and we're b r ing ing it r igh t up t o the middfe o f the picture and I 've pu t the gun sight on it and now we'l l t r y t o track r i gh t on it. These tracking tasks have shown that we can probably track t o within about a half o f a degree. I don ' t know if you can see the runways coming ou t back there or not. This i s step pr inted - it's in real time. I t was taken a t 6 frames per second. I t 's step pr in ted so tha t we were seeing it in real t ime. The jumping or pulsing tha t you see i s due to the fac t tha t the step pr int ing g i ves it tha t ef fect . Now it 's past the nadir and we're starting ou t now and the range i s going t o start increasing and the ta rge t wil l g e t smaller. Remember, now tha t this isn't like an airplane, it doesn't matter which way you po in t you always g o i n the same direct ion so we're start ing t o go backwards now. W e approached it going frontwards r igh t side up and we're now depart ing upside down and backwards. W e spent so much t ime upside down backwards tha t it d idn ' t make any difference. A n d it just fades silently into the sunset.

Now the control mode tha t we used in this part icular exercise was one tha t we cal l pulse. I t ' s really a i acceleration control - it has no rate damping or a t t i tude holding feature. I t just puts out a very short pulse, I 8 milliseconds.

I46 THE SOCIETY O F EXPERIMENTAL TEST PILOTS

We ' re using a t t i tude thrusters, two o f them, 25 pound-thrusters. W e ge t approximately 1/10 o f a degree per second change in a t t i tude ra te and eYen though this part icular exercise here was a three-axes exercise we're changing rates and

p i tch rol l and yaw al l a t the same time. You can see it real ly wasn't t oo diffi- cu l t t o track the spacecraf t right on the target. I think tha t these techniques wi l l f i nd many appl icat ions i n space f l igh t and I 'm sure tha t you're a l l aware o f it too.

The general observations tha t we made tha t the scientif ic community f inds t o be no t only interesting bu t pract ical , and it sort o f leads them in to new experiments, i s the fac t tha t all o f the southetn and northern l ights appear below you in the spacecraf t and no t necessarily above you. You can look down and see these things. The shooting stars are all below you. That's kind o f obvious when you think o f it, that 's where al l the air i s and these things light up because they're re-entering. W e found tha t the l igh t o f a real severe thunderstorm can actual ly l igh t up objects i n the spacecraft. W e took a map and he ld it u p t o the window, turned all the lights off, and let t he thunderstorm flash actual ly l i gh t u p the maps so tha t we could see the let ter ing on it. We 've invest igated air g low and taken some pictures o f it, or t r ied to, and we've looked a t a num-

ber o f sunrises. Sunsets are the most beaut i fu l th ings you've ever seen. Scien- tists have been interested i n f ind ing ou t why the astronauts keep saying $hat

the l i gh t appears t o be banded. The light blue area just above the l imb of the earth appears t o be banded. W e were fortunate enough t o b e able t o ob ta in a movie o f a sunrise. I t really shows tha t you see l igh t and dark blue bands. M a y I have the movie please.

The nice pa r t o f this i s you ge t t o see a sunrise or a sunset every 15 minutes. It 's p re t ty obvious, the l igh t and dark blue band ing and the orange band.. ing. Actual ly there's about 7 or 8 dif ferent colors tha t appear - actual stripes.

There i s t he br igh t spot of our presentation. ARMSTRONG: N o medical informat ion has been recorded which has had

any influence on our plans or schedules. Some data have been received which i s n o t fu l l y understood, however, and medical experiments are included i n each f l igh t i n an a t tempt t o clarify these areas.

Defense department experiments have included navigation, photography, and radiometry. Sextant measurements o f angles between celestial bodies and angles between celestial bodies and surface landmarks have been performed fo r space navigation. Photographs using long foca l length lenses have shown the pract ical i ty o f using spacecraft as a photograph;c p la t fo rm fo r celestial and ground subjects. Infrared measurements were performed on Gemin i 5 using radiometers and spectrometers. Basic background measurements o f earth, ocean, and sky were recorded as well as infrared signatures o f act ive targets, such as a rocket sled run a t Ho l loman A i r Force Ease and Minuteman launches f rom 1

Vandenberg.

McDIVITT: I ' d like t o speak a l i t t le bit about housekeeping and just p la in 1 l iv ing in space. It doesn't sound like the k ind o f th ing you real ly would b e inter- 1 ested i n bu t on the other hand it takes so much o f your t ime .that it becomes very important. W e found tha t stowage, eat ing, sleeping, plain o ld comfor t , and disposal o f body waste are really no t insigni f icant items a t all. I n Gemin i 3 we tested all o f the equipment bu t we really d idn ' t have t ime t o investigate al l of the procedures thoroughly and we just d idn ' t have much o f a basis t o g o 0'1

fo r Gemin i 4. W e worked ou t a few details on Gemin i 4 and we found +hat

I


some o f the conclusions tha t we came t o were wrong and we t r ied t o mod i fy

these fo r Gemin i 5. W e t r ied them on Gemin i 5 and we f i nd tha t we sti l l have some problems bu t we're making headway and we're go ing t o mod i fy these Bor Gemin i 6, 7 and all the rest. I think t h a i each f l igh t i s go ing t o teach us a l i t t le more about this. Of course that's why we're f ly ing them.

Let me take stowage first. This doesn't seem too tough. You've g o t a space- c ra f t t ha t has so much volume to stuff all the things i n there and then you're all set t o go. But it 's really no t qui te so simple because you've go t three separate, independent problems. First you've go t t o ge t it all packed in there bor launch. Then you've g o t t o ge t it all ou t and use it in orbit. Then you've g o t to pack it all back in fo r re-entry. Unfortunately, the bulk tha t you have fo r re- entry i s a l i t t le bit greater than the bulk you had fo r launch because al l +he

things tha t we pack in there are really stuffed i n and we +ound tha t vacuum packing can make a very small package bu t unfortunately when you undo it you've g o t wrappers, and you've g o t water i n the bags now. It ends u p tha t you're actually coming in w i th more bulk than you took of f wi th so we've now

g o t t o look a t a stowage problem not only .for launch, which was the way we looked a t it in i t ia l ly , bu t we've go t t o look a t it fo r re-entry too. They're two

sort o f independent problems. Also the re-entry problems include the heat ing e f fec t on some o f the equipment such tha t you can' t carry it back the same way you carried it out and you went t o pu t it i n an area within the spacecraf t t ha t has a l i t t le be t te r environment. O n Gemin i 4 we even ran in to a specia! problem because we took so many things w i th us in the spacecraft +hat we sorta

ant ic ipated opening u p the hatch the second t ime and throwing them ou t so tha t we w m l d have a l i t t le room t o move around in. W h e n we didn' t open the hatch fo r the second t ime we had a l i t t l e stowage problem and it .turned out tha t Ed re-entered carry ing a lo t o f the stuff i n his lap. I guess it was better

than f loa t ing around. W e ra r t o f worked out a procedure right then and +here as t o what we'd do and how we'd eject and the techniques ,that we'd use i.0

take care o f our extra equipment. Eating - I like to , and we have a general bite-size and rehydratable i'ood.

I t 's qu i te high calorie, low bulk and it 's qui te good. The only th ing i s they just don ' t seem t o give us enough. It provides all the energy you need bu t it just doesn't f i l l u p your stomach. W e d o ge t between about 2500 and 3000 calories a day and an average o f something on the order o f 6 t o 8 pounds o f water.

Sleeping has been a problem and th i s i s o n e ' o f those tha t we don ' t have i roned ou t yet. We 've had crew members sleep individually. We 've used two di f ferent sleep cycles. Dur ing Gemin i 4 we used two four-hour sleep cycles per day per man. O n Gemin i 5 we used a six-hour sleep per iod and a two-hour

, sleep per iod. Then an 8-hour per iod where bo th crew members were up. This d idn ' t work ou t sat idactor i ly either. W e found tha t when one crew member was u p and the other crew member was asleep, his actions, the communications, +he 1 thruster f i r ing and all the cockpi t act iv i ty kept the other man awake. Beside5 we are all nosey and when the other guy i s doing something we want t o f i n d out what it is. This really isn't funny because although I had the greatest conf idence i n Ed and I know Ed had the greatest confidence in me and I know Pete and G o r d o had the greatest conf idence in each other, when the other guy i s do ing something you want t o f i nd ou t what it is, how i t 's go ing to e f fec t it, what'; go ing r igh t , what's go ing wrong, what you are go ing t o d o next. So I quer: we're kinda nosey human beings and we really haven't - this technique prob-

~


ably isn't going t o work. So I think what we may do in .future f l ights i s have

bo th crew members sleep together for a longer per iod o f t ime, like maybe for e igh t hours. We ' re looking in to th i s sort o f a technique. The best th ing I can say i s tha t what we've used 50 fa r i s not adequate. O n Gemin i 4 the crew members slept wi th their helmets on and their visors down and covered. That didn't seem t o work ou t so well. Ed kept ge t t ing ho t wi th his visor down and he wanted t o open it up and then t o s he d idn ' t look good with the cover over his face, so on Gemin i 5 Pete and G o r d o worked ou t a snazzy helmet. Cou ld I have the next slide please. (Sl ide 2 3 . ) I t 's a l i t t le blurry, I think this i s when G o r d o was co ld and he was shivering so bad he couldn' t hold the camera still. There's a picture o f Pete sleeping. It looks like he's about to play foo tba l l bu t what he's g o t on i s a sort o f eye shades, and something over his ears t o keep $ha sound ou t in t ry ing t o sleep. It d idn ' t work out. You could p robab ly guess tha t by looking a t it.

In the crew comfor t area we've found tha t our pressure suits are acceptable al though not necessarily desirable fo r the mission durat ion tha t we've experienced t o date. The cabin and suit temperature in general have been acceptable. How- ever, dur ing some high workload periods in Gemin i 4 and some low workload power-down periods i n Gemin i 5 the temperatures reached undesirable levels. W e feel b y carefully planning workload and by some manipulat ion o f the environmental control systems we should be able t o avoid opera t ing i n these regions fo r unacceptably long periods of t ime. W e did have some minor eye i r r i tat ions dur icg Gemin i 4 which was cleared u p for Gemin i 5 and they d idn ' t experience it. W e l.ave been pleasantly surprised by the low humidi ty tha t was experienced in Gemini. You kncw Mercury was pract ical ly under water the whole f l igh t bu t the humidi ty in Gemin i would run around 70% and i t 's a lo t be t te r than it i s i n Houston. W e are cont inuing work on be t te r pressure suits.

You know we just can't ever be satisfied wi th those suits, there's always room fo r improvement and we're leaning on the contractors t o help us ou t because as we ge t longer and longer missions these things are go ing t o have t o be improved.

W e found tha t in t h e area o f body waste disposals tha t our defecat ion bags have been adequate. The urine collection system on Gemin i 4 was somewhat inadequate and we t r ied t o improve it on Gemin i 5 and we did make some strides fo rward bu t it s t i l l needs a l i t t le more improvement. I migh t a d d here tha t the urine dump system fai led on Gemin i 4 bu t like all good engineers we had engineered a redundant dump system and I 'm g lad we did. I would have ha ted t o drown up there.

ARMSTRONG: In the area o f spacecraft systems, some signi f icant new concepts have been demonstrated dur ing the past year.

The small rocket engines or thrusters, used i n varying sizes +or bo th transla- t ion and a t t i tude control have performed very well. Using storable hypergol ic propellants of n i t rogen tetroxide and hydrazine, the units can be opera ted con- tinuously or i n pulses o f approximately 20 millisec. The thrusters wi th their abla- t ive throats have significantly extended their l i fetime.

In add i t ion t o the development o f l i fe support systems for extra-vehicular act iv i ty, the Gemin i environmental system uses supercrit ically stored oxygen - oxygen stored a t a pressure temperature combinat ion tha t provides the density of a l iquid b u t has the propert ies of a gas. Supercrit ical storage i s also used fo r the hydrogen and oxygen propellants for .the fuel cells. The vacuum in Dewar

1 I I

I


storage bott les and i t s resulting high qual i ty insulation has been admi t ted ly diffi- cul t t o maintain. W e st i l l don ' t understand heat transfer characteristics and asso- c iated vent ing o f these storage containers very well.

The fuel cells themselves were f i rst f lown on Gemin i 5 and were a resound- ing success. As you know, the fuel cell works on a pr inciple which i s the reverse o f electrolysis - combining hydrogen and oxygen t o produce water and elec- t r i c i t y while providing a weight advantage over batteries of about 2 t o I .

McDIVITT: Because o f so many variables we have found tha t we have a tremendous need for real t ime f l igh t planning. The days o f saying all r i gh t this i s what we're going t o do on t h i s mission - we're going t o take o f f a t such and such a t ime and we're going to do this and tha t and something else and we're going t o land th i r ty minutes later was fine. But we've found tha t the long dura- t ion rendezvous f l ights have created a new need fo r this real t ime f l igh t planning. I guess we've always been able to take care o f l i t t le things tha t come u p on airplanes and change things and on our early space f l ights we changed them slightly too bu t it has almost come to the po in t now tha t i f you looked a t the

launch and re-entry procedures you know you're go ing t o d o those things and you're going t o do them in a certain order bu t you don ' t have any idea in the world what you're going t o d o in the middle. You've g o t a fo rmat tha t you 'd l ikc t o fo l low bu t you know tha t the chances o f it are pract ical ly impossible and insurmountable. First o f all let's look a t what we've g o t t o take care of. We've go t the consumables. We 've g o t propel lant quantity, electrical power, oxygen, f ood and water. These things don' t really sound like much. You should be

able to pref l ight program these so tha t you don' t have any problem a t all. O n our f l igh t we had just f inished the EVA and I was kind o f thirsty so I reached over and g o t the drinking water th ing and stuck it in my mouth and pul led the t r igger and I d idn ' t ge t any water out and I remember tu rn ing around t o Ed and saying "Ed, th i s i s go ing t o be t h e shortest four-day f l igh t you've ever seen." H e asked me why and I to ld him about the water and he pu t it in his mouth and g o t a drink and said, "Wel l , I guess it looks like i t 's only go ing fo be you tha t i s going t o have t o come down." H e could drink! It tu rned ou t tha t the way the hose was mounted, it worked f ine when you twisted it one way bu t it d idn ' t work a t all when you twisted it the other way. So I learned how to t w i s t it the other way. But those are significant things. There wasn't any water gauging system a t all on Gemin i 4 and it became apparent as soon as we g o t up there tha t we needed it.

A n d weather, we have no t only the weather i n the landing areas highly demonstrated on Gemin i 5, the need t o be ab le t o react t o typhoons and hurri- canes, bu t we also have experiment area weather. Let's say we're do ing a geological experiment. There's no sense in taking pictures o f clouds and no t +he ground i f that's the kind o f experiment you are doing. So maybe we have t o switch t o a di f ferent experiment where we are looking a t the clouds. W e g e t ou t the other type o f equipment and forge on tha t way. We 've g o t t o look a t the system status, the crew condi t ion, whether they've had any sleep o r not, experiments we've done to date, how many tests we've accomplished, and if we're go ing t o do a rendezvous we've go t t o consider the launch t ime o f +he spacecraft with respect t o the launch t ime of the booster o r o f the target. The funny par t o f real t ime f l igh t planning i s t ha t you just don ' t go there and start. The only th ing tha t makes real t ime f l igh t planning work i s a l o t o f p re f l igh t preparatioo. That sounds sort o f inconsistent b u t it 's really not. You've g o t t o

I

,


go ou t and look a t the weather da ta early. You've g o t t o have sunrise, sunset, moonrise and moonset informat ion for the spacecraft and since launch times make all these things vary you've g o t t o have some kind o f a computer program tha t can read this out t o you in real t ime dur ing the f l ight . You've g o t t o know the t ime and position o f closest approach to targets. Let's look a t t he rocket sled run tha t we did a t Holloman. The crew members had t o know tha t a t a certain t ime they should have the spacecraft point ing in a certain d i rec t ion and a t t ha t instant tha t sled was go ing to start o f f and tha t i s the way we did it and it worked. It d idn ' t happen just because we al l went there and said well you ought to po in t t o your left. W e gave them att i tudes t o the nearest degree because we had gone ahead and done th i s p re f l igh t computer program. W e also have t o know the t ime o f ground station pass and just a wealth o f informat ion has t o be available to these people tha t are actually do ing this in- f l ight real- t ime flight planning.

When you consider tha t we're do ing earth o rb i ta l missions now and the kind o f problems we get into, just project this over t o the lunar missions. I 'm sure tha t Bob and Tom talked t o you about tha t this morning b u t it 's real ly something to think about.

ARMSTRONG: I 'd like t o make a few comments on the Gemin i en t ry t ra - jectory. The thing cal led the foo tpr in t i s the area tha t can be reached f rom a given re t ro fire. Footpr int i s based on the l i f t o f the vehicle. I t 's a func t ion o f bo th the C.G. offset i n the case o f the Gemini and also the aerodynamic der iva-

tives. The landing po in t wi th in the foo tpr in t i s determined b y how the lift i s

used. W e app ly a t a given t r im angle and can' t modulate the l i f t so we can maneuver only b y rol l ing the l i f t vector by control l ing the bank angle. C a n we see the slide please. (Sl ide 24.)

That i s what a Gemin i foo tpr in t looks l ife. The retro-f i re po in t i s several

thousand miles back t o the west here. I f fu l l l i f t i s f lown, tha t i s the lift vector

up all the way through the trajectory. it wil! land a t t h i s po in t here. If zero lift ro l l ing t ra jectory or 90 degree bank angle either r igh t or l e f t i s f lown you'l l land along this line. I f you f l y wi th your lift vector po in ted t o the north, you'll land a t this po in t and t o the south down a t th i s point . The other places ind ica te intermediate bank angles. You could land further back by rol l ing the l i f t vector down bu t this would tend t o make the g's intolerable. This line back here i s a peak of about 8 g's in re-entry. This point u p here i s about 4 g's, here i t 's 6 . and you rap id ly ge t beyond 15 t o 20 back in th is position. The spacecraf t i s designed fo r 10 g normal t ra jectory and our guidance system is restr icted t o I I g's. I+

gets inaccurate results beyond tha t point. In general the spacecraft i s very stable and very control lable dur ing the

re-entry. W e have used pulse mode, d i rec t mode, and ra te command mode in the f l ights t o date. Sound, v ibrat ion, and heat ing have not been a problem for

the crew. Gemin i 3 used the maneuvering rockets t o lower the per igee +o 4 5 miles pr ior t o f i r ing the solid re t ro rockets. Since this was the f i rst flight, there was l i t t le confidence, by ground personnel, in the on board re-entry navigat ion system. So ground computed bank angles were t o be used and the navigat ion system would just be monitored, no t followed. The actual l i f t t o d rag ra t io was approximately 30% less than the predicted value and the trajectory was short b y 63 miles. The on-board navigat ion system worked proper ly and i f it had been fol lowed would have pu t the landing po in t r igh t on target. Gemin i 4 used the 45-mile per igee technique again and re t ro rockets bu t the computer had Tailed

1 '

Gemin i Manned Flight Program t o Date 151

earlier i n the f l i gh t and the on-board navigat ion system was no t possible. J i m

could no t measure the veloci ty change o f this perigee lowering maneuver due t o this same fai lure problem so he did his maneuver on time. The t ime o f the

burn was 2 minutes and 40 seconds and J im was o f f b y half a second. The re t ro rockets f i red one and a half seconds early. A ro l l ing re-entry was used and the spacecraf t landed 48 miles short.

O n Gemin i 5 which was the f i rst n ight re t ro f i re and night re-entry, a t least pa r t way down the trajectory, they used retro rockets only; no t having the fuel or desiring t o use the 45-mile perigee maneuver. The spacecraft did have a computer and an on-board navigat ion system operat ive b u t it received an im- proper steering command due t o an erroneous update f rom the ground computer system. It looked as though it was proper a t the t ime guidance was in i t iated and G o r d o fol lowed it a l i t t le bit, d ropp ing his trajectory. When the guidance d idn ' t come in properly, he went back t o the backup technique, o r the al ternate angles and he landed 90 miles short. We ' re no t part icular ly impressed with our demonstrated ab i l i t y t o miss the landing po in t b u t we're hoping t o give you an improved repor t next year. We ' re sure working on it. W e ' d like t o show you a movie now. W o u l d you turn the movie on. This f i lm was taken f rom the Gemin i 2 flight. I t 's taken through the cockpi t window. J i m tells me it 's very representa- t ive o f what you actually see through the window.

( M O V I E ) McDIVITT: Ne i l and I have t r ied t o just g ive you a very b road brush treat-

ment o f the program the last year. There are a lo t o f people involved. There aren' t just the people who f l y it. There are thousands and thousands o f people who make it go and we'd sort o f like t o extend our thanks t o them a t this t ime,

too. We 've sort o f concluded tha t we've g o t a p re t ty good spacecraf t here. You know i t ' s just like an airplane. These spacecraft really aren' t any d i f f e r e d than airplanes, bu t we t ry t o make everybody think they are. I t 's like one o f those airplanes tha t you ge t ou t and you say, "Man, I ' d really like t o fly tha t again," as opposed t o the one you ge t out o f and say. "Boy, that's a real dog." I think this i s the one you want t o really go ou t and f l y again.

As you know, we've go t Gemin i 6, Gemin i 7, Gemin i 8 coming u p and a l o t o f other ones. Gemin i 6 wil l be our f i rst rendezvous. Gemin i 7 wi l l be a fourteen day durat ion mission. Gemin i @ wil l be another rendezvous and EVA. I hope tha t next year we'l l be able to come back and repor t on all the good things tha t happened on these f l ights and maybe even a bunch o f other ones. I think tha t gives you an idea, a t least I hope it goes you an idea o f what we've done the last year and I ' d like to thank you very much. But before we go I ' d like t o thank our project ionist who really had a job. We've had t o run some o f this f i lm backwards, some of it a t sound speed, and some o f it a t silent speed and I fhink they deserve an academy award fo r ge t t ing it all up here right. Thank you very much.

SHEPARD: I would personally like t o thank Tom Armstrong and Bob Smyth, Ne i l Armstrong and J im McD iv i t i fo r an excellent presentation. I think i t 's an outstcnding status repor t t o you all o f the space program t o date. Bob and Tom, if you're here, wil l you come up fo r questions. Wh i le they're ge t t ing in place, 1'11 take the opportuni ty o f having a capt ive audience t o read a press re- lease which went ou t recently tha t some of you may not have seen.

"The manned spacecraft center in Houston recently began another recrui t - ing program t o select addi t ional p i lo t astronauts fo r future manned space f l igh t

1 , I

!

I 5 2 THE SOCIETY OF EXPERIMENTAL TEST PILOTS

missions. During the next two months we hope t o reach all o f the potent ia l ly qual i f ied people i n the Un i ted States who are interested i n part ic ipat ing in +his nationally s igni f icant program. W e will accept applications f rom interested can- didates unt i l the f i rst o f December of th i s year. The minimum standards fo r the

current program are: be a cit izen of the Un i ted States, no tal ler than 6 feet, and having been born on or af ter December I, 1929, have a Bachelors degree i n engineering, physical science, or b io log ica l science, having acqu i red 1000 hours i n je t p i l o t t ime or having graduated f rom an armed forces test p i l o t school, and if there are sny o f you here who think you have a reasonable substi-

tu te fo r 1000 hours o f jet t ime, we'd s t i l l like t o hear f rom you. Lastly be ab le t o pass a Class I f l igh t physical exam which requires 20-20 uncorrected vision. All inquiries should be d i rec ted t o Astronaut Selection, Box 2201, Houston I, Texas.

We ' re just about on schedule. W e ' l l take f i ve minutes fo r any questions

which you might have since we have none written. W e have ladies here who, i n case you d o have wri t ten questions, wil l col lect them or we'l l take any ques-

tions you might have f rom the floor. Do we have any questions? MARSH BEEBE, Douglas A i rc ra f t : When does the transi t ion f rom zero liff

t o gravi tat ion forces take place dur ing the re-entry and what i s the pilots' reac- t ion and fee l t o th is?

SHEPARD: Jim, did you hear t h e quest ion? McDIVITT: You mean f rom zero g t o some g i s t ha t cor rec t? BEEBE: Aff i rmat ive. McDIVITT: I t takes place u p around three hundred thousand fee t and a lot

depends on the trajectory tha t you're f ly ing, where you were in the orbi t , how you re t ro f i red and many, many variables. Ed and I had a very peculiar experience on our f l igh t because as we had been u p there fo r four days we thought tha t we were s t i l l i n p re t ty good shape and tha t we could take these g's b u t as we started on down, we knew it wds go ing t o be an 8g re-entry, so we were f ly ing along and I said t o Ed, "Gee, it feels like we've g o t about a g , here it comes" and he said "Yeah, I feel it" and pre t ty soon he said, "Wel l , there's about two, there's abou t three" and about tha t t ime I looked a t t he g meter and it s t i l l said zero. So I said t o Ed, "I think the g meter i s broken." So I reached u p and tapped it and reset it and it went back a l i t t le bit and I thought, "That's funny." Then we thought, "Well gee, something's wrong," so we ignored it and we knew tha t we were a t three g's anyway. A b o u t tha t t ime the g meter started moving and it f inal ly g o t t o one. W e did take the 8 g's wi th no problem though, i t 's a l o t be t te r than the centrifuge.

BEEBE: I s it similar t o g in an a i rc ra f t? McDIVITT: W e l l no, the g vector i s this way. It eyeballs in instead o f eye-

balls down b u t aside f rom tha t it feels just t he same. SHEPARD: I might a d d tha t in all o f our Mercury experience and Gemin i

experience t o da te we've had no d i f f i cu l ty do ing any o f the re-entries tha t have been performed. The pi lots have lost no per ipheral vision.

'

1

1 Next question please. A N O N Y M O U S : Cou ld J i m br ief us just shortly on tha t hatch problem. McDIVITT: W e g o t the th ing down and we needed t o engage one gear

wi th another gear. They d idn ' t engage the f i rst t ime we t r ied them and by manipulat ing around a l i t t le bit we were f inal ly able t o engage the gears. W e just dec ided tha t since we f inal ly had them engaged and the door locked, we


wouldn' t open it again. I t was just a matter o f engaging ,the teeth o f one gear and another one.

SHEPARD: I'd like t o po in t ou t here this was purely mechanical problem and no t as a result o f cold-soak, hot-soak, or any o f the space environment, so it is. we feel, an isolated case.

Yes sir, r igh t here, d o you have a question? (Question inaudible on tape ) . SHEPARD: The question i s d i rected pr imari ly t o the movie and the re-

entry and generally on the control o f the lift vector. I f I may 1'11 just take tha t question briefly. If you of fset the center o f gravi ty f rom the longi tudinal axis you have lift generated regardless o f t h e re-entry angle. The l i f t i s there and you must do something with it. Obviously, i f you want t o use it t o extend your range in which case the lift vector i s oriented away f rom the center o f +he earth. To decrease your range t o the landing point i t 's or iented toward :the earth. To adjust crossrange, you locate tire lift vector l e f t or right. Now the rol l ing re-entry which you just witnessed was in an unmanned spacecraft. It gives you essentially a ball istic re-entry because with the continually ro ta t ing l i f t vector you essentially cancel dll of the l i f t which i s generated in any specific direction. To further answer your question, zero lift can be ob ta ined b y adjust- ing a lift vector 90 degrees t o the r igh t or lef t , in which case you ge t also ad- justments in crossrange. There are several d i f fe ren t combinations: re-entries as described this morning f rom Apo l lo and Gemin i are essentially inert ia l p la t fo rm and computer predicted bu t we also have a backup scheme fo r the re-entries

which require only a bank-angle and a stopwatch. O n e more question please. ED W A T S O N , Douglas A i rc ra f t : Was tha t re-entry real t ime?

SHEPARD: The camera which we use i s a 6 f rame per second camera. I t was projected a t 18 frames per second so tha t was three times real Pime. The luncheon wi l l start immediately. Thenk you very much.


Sl ide 1 - CAPE KENNEDY

Gemini Manned Flight Program to Date I 5 5

Slide 2 - POGO

I56 THE SOCIETY OF EXPERIMENTAL TEST PICOTS

Slide 3 - COCKPIT P A N E L

Slide 4 - AGENA - GEMINI RENDEZVOUS

Gemini Manned Flight Program t o Date I57

Slide 5 - RENDEZVOUS E V A L U A T I O N POD

Slide 6 - R E P PHOTOGRAPHED A F T E R EJECTION

I 5 8 THE SOCIETY OF EXPERIMENTAL TEST PILOTS

Slide 7 - E X T R A V E H I C U L A R A C T I V I T Y

Slide 8 - E X T R A V E H I C U L A R A C T I V I T Y

Gemin i M a n n e d Flight Program t o D a t e I 5 9

Slide 9 - S U L T A N A T E OF MUSCAT AND OMAN

Slide 10 - A R K L f N AND CROOKED ISLAND IN BAHAMAS


Slide 1 1 - FLORIDA KEYS

Slide 12 - G I B R A L T E R

Gemini Manned Flight Program to Date 161

Slide 13 - BAJA CALIFORNIA

Slide 14 - STORM OFF MOROCCO


Slide 15 - VORTICES OF CLOUDS O F F BAJA C A L I F O R N I A

Sl ide 16 - S T A T E OF F L O R I D A (CLOUD P A T T E R N )

Gemini Manned Flight Program t o Date I63

Slide 17 - R I C H A E T CRATER IN AFRICA

Slide 18 - SElF DUNES


Slide 19 - C A L I F O R N I A COAST L I N E A T LOS ANGELES

Slide 20 - SALTON SEA AND ENVIRONS

Gemini Manned Flight Program to Date I65

Slide 21 - SALTON SEA

Slide 22 - N I L E D E L T A

I 6 6 T H E S O C I E T Y OF EXPERIMENTAL TEST PILOTS

S l i d e 23 - CONRAD SLEEPING USING SLEEP H E L M E T

West longitude, deg

M ~ N W O capability IoapriM for landing area 63-1.

Slide 24 - LANDING FOOTPRINT