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Forum:	Hardware & Flown Items
Topic:	Space capsule metal flotation spheres (balls)

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Your Reply: HTML is ON UBB Code is ON Smilies Legend	[QUOTE]Originally posted by mercsim: [B]<BLOCKQUOTE>[i]...for Mercury they were packed inside the capsule in vacant spaces to provide for flotation in case of swamping.[/i]</BLOCKQUOTE> If you have ever looked inside a Mercury capsule, there are really no vacant spaces. You could have fit a few spheres as described, maybe behind the left side of the periscope, but I don't think you could have put enough in to make a difference. The capsule splashdown weight was around 2000 pounds (we could look up the exact number). There wasn't much that was sealed that would have displaced water. the two helium tanks, the peroxide tanks, and maybe a few of the instruments were sealed. So to displace enough water to support a swamped capsule would taken a LOT of those spheres described... Somehow the math just doesn't add up.[/B][/QUOTE]
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