posted 10-24-2007 01:53 PM               

You'll see that it is pretty identical to the one showed, with visible mechanism, in the exhibition "In Search of Liberty Bell 7."

You'll see that the auction went through, and I missed. My biggest miss so far (and I had in my US funds account $2200 US, which is worth about $1400 Canadian now with the high Canadian dollar).

From eBay:

Serious bidders only please! I acquired this item through NASA officials a number of years ago. I was told it came out of the Apollo 15 command module but I have no real evidence it did. My source was very legitimate, however.

Someone with more time could probably trace serial numbers to the exact module. It is an Earth Path Indicator, also called an Earth Orbit Indicator. I have seen an earlier model that looks a lot like it that came out of Gus Grissom's retrieved Liberty Bell spacecraft. It's purpose was to provide the astronauts a manual, non-electronic method of pinpointing their splashdown and window of reentry into the Earth's atmosphere.

This item was manufactured by The Minneapolis Honeywell Regulator Company in April of 1960. It bears stock #DJG280A1, Series A5, and Serial # J-12. See the pictures for the markings.

Everything works. It is a wind-up mechanism. When wound the earth turns inside the box once every 90 minutes. Orbit time can be slowed or sped up. Inclination can be set between 20 and 40 degrees.

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posted 04-29-2023 05:06 PM               

Lou - I would love any pointers you might have to it not flying with Carpenter. A National Air and Space Museum page claims "This instrument was launched in 1961 on an unmanned test flight. John Glenn and Scott Carpenter, the first Americans to orbit the Earth, carried identical devices on their flights in 1962." But they don't cite their sources, and the Mercury Familiarization Manual says "Capsules 16 and 18 will not have the Earth Path indicator installed."

In any case, I am doing my research on this artifact and would love to know of any source for the part numbers for the Earth Path Indicators (EPI) that flew on MA-6 and possibly MA-7 and MR-4. Were any assigned to later missions, and subsequently removed before flight, as I have been told happened with MA-8?

posted 04-30-2023 02:26 PM               

video overview.

And there is an interesting use of the EPI in the 1962 NASA documentary of John Glenn's MA-6 flight: they used a unit on the ground to provide video annotating the orbital path at the time. Because the EPI is essentially a wind-up analog computer that shows the orbital position, just based on original launch parameters (inclination and orbit time (derived from altitude)) and no input from the spacecraft, an EPI on the ground can be in sync with the unit in orbit.

They introduce it here