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Author
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Topic: Gemini VII: Storing their spacesuits
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carmelo
Member Posts: 1051
From: Messina, Sicilia, Italia
Registered: Jun 2004
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posted 10-07-2009 12:57 PM
   
During Gemini VII mission we know that Frank Borman and Jim Lovell removed their pressure suits.The question is where were stored the suits in the cramped Gemini capsule? Under their feet? |
space1
Member Posts: 861
From: Danville, Ohio
Registered: Dec 2002
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posted 10-07-2009 05:00 PM
According to the Mission Report, the suits were doubled up with visor covers installed. (Recall that the special Gemini VII suit had a fabric hood.) They were then stowed behind the seat with the visor and feet wedged between the top of the seat and the hatch.------------------
John Fongheiser
President
Historic Space Systems, http://www.space1.com |
Lou Chinal
Member Posts: 1332
From: Staten Island, NY
Registered: Jun 2007
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posted 10-08-2009 05:00 AM
If I remember right Borman wore his suit for most of the flight. While Lovell sat in his underwear. They had planned to switch every day, but it was just too hard for him (being the taller of the two) to get back into his suit.There was less room in Gemini per man then Mercury. 50 cu.ft / 70 cu. ft. I believe Lovell remarked it was like living in a Volkswagon for two weeks. Can you imagine the smell! |
moorouge
Member Posts: 2458
From: U.K.
Registered: Jul 2009
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posted 10-08-2009 01:12 PM
Regarding the smell - someone said that the worst job in the whole space programme - particularly Apollo - was the guy who had to open the hatch.I believe that the recovery crew drew lots to see who should have the 'honour'. The consolation was that once done, you didn't have to do it again! |
Delta7
Member Posts: 1527
From: Bluffton IN USA
Registered: Oct 2007
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posted 10-08-2009 01:30 PM
A space-borne men's room, gym locker and dumpster all rolled into one, and with almost 2 weeks of "activity". |
ilbasso
Member Posts: 1522
From: Greensboro, NC USA
Registered: Feb 2006
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posted 10-08-2009 06:18 PM
And one of the urine bags leaked on the first day of the flight, which didn't help matters any. |
Jay Chladek
Member Posts: 2272
From: Bellevue, NE, USA
Registered: Aug 2007
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posted 10-08-2009 08:01 PM
Sounds like one of my old car trips when I was too cheap to get a hotel room.  Seriously though, I wonder how they managed to combat some of the obvious problems on Earth of wearing the same clothing for two weeks? Granted one probably doesn't get many problems related to pressure points in zero gee, but I'll bet that underwear was pretty gamey at the end of the flight, even with the urine and fecal collection stuff working as advertised. As for the smell, the olfactory systems probably would have tuned it out easily enough for Frank and Jim as they were living in it, but somebody taking a whiff for the first time would have been knocked over by it. |
moorouge
Member Posts: 2458
From: U.K.
Registered: Jul 2009
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posted 10-09-2009 02:20 AM
A couple of further observations on sanitation problems in the early days and I will try to be sensitive about this.It is relatively easy to plumb men into a waste disposal system. However, women present a problem for obvious reasons. I believe that originally the idea of using a catheter was discarded as being too uncomfortable. This is why Tereshkova spent the duration of her flight in a nappy. Was this a reason why women were not considered suitable candidates for early flights? In polar exploration at the turn of the last century - the days of Scott and Shackleton - it was a red letter day when they got to turn their underwear inside out. Did the Apollo astronauts do the same? And what, if anything, did they wear under their flight suits? |
Delta7
Member Posts: 1527
From: Bluffton IN USA
Registered: Oct 2007
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posted 10-09-2009 11:07 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Jay Chladek:
As for the smell, the olfactory systems probably would have tuned it out easily enough for Frank and Jim as they were living in it, but somebody taking a whiff for the first time would have been knocked over by it.
An Apollo astronaut (Jim Irwin, I think) said pretty much the same thing. The crew would be largely unaware of how "ripe" their environment had become, but it was quite noticeable to the recovery personnel.Which leads me to a question: how is the "atmosphere" after the Space Shuttle lands, especially after a mission with 7 people and without the benefit of being connected to a space station for a good part of the time? |
Jay Chladek
Member Posts: 2272
From: Bellevue, NE, USA
Registered: Aug 2007
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posted 10-09-2009 02:02 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Delta7:
Which leads me to a question: how is the "atmosphere" after the Space Shuttle lands, especially after a mission with 7 people and without the benefit of being connected to a space station for a good part of the time?
That would depend on how well maintained things are internally in the shuttle. The crews did take periodic sponge baths as I recall and as long as the waste system isn't backed up or declared non-useable, the odor shouldn't be a problem. Last major mission I recall where it did get a little ripe was STS-41D where the crew couldn't do any urine dumps due to the 'piss-sickle" that formed on the water discharge chute outside the orbiter. They could use the WCS for solid waste, but not urine, so the trash recepticles were stuffed by the end of the mission and the interior did smell a bit when they cracked the hatches at the end. |
music_space
Member Posts: 1179
From: Canada
Registered: Jul 2001
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posted 10-24-2009 02:10 PM
Mike Mullane recounts the STS-41D urine-sicle considerations in his excellent and candid "Riding Rockets" (reviewed by Jay in the book's Amazon entry). At the time of the malfunction, there was still some capacity left in the urine holding tank, so mission control implied that the female crewmember, Judith Resnik, could still use the urinal while the men peed in bags, but she declined, seeing "a feminist trap" in the implication. "I'm sure", Mullane comments, "she paid a messy price for her feminist stand.""I sure bet you have penis envy now.", Mullane teased. See pp. 182-183.
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Francois Guay
Collector of litterature, notebooks, equipment and memories! |
Blackarrow
Member Posts: 3160
From: Belfast, United Kingdom
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 10-24-2009 04:57 PM
On the Apollo lunar landing missions, the problem must have been reduced to some extent: at least part of the odour would have been vented on the Moon, and only the CMP was left to affect the CM atmosphere for a few days. On the "J" missions, they even got to release 8 or 9 days' pent-up "aroma" thanks to the venting of the CM atmosphere for the deep-space EVA. I assume the frogman who opened the Apollo 8 hatch drew the shortest straw, bearing in mind Frank Borman's problems. Come to think of it, it couldn't have been much fun for the short-straw drawer on Apollo 7 either. |
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