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Author
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Topic: Gemini 7: Mission duration vs. moon landings
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Tykeanaut
Member Posts: 2216
From: Worcestershire, England, UK.
Registered: Apr 2008
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posted 08-29-2011 05:11 AM
   
I've always wondered why Frank Borman and Jim Lovell had to endure a 14-day mission in preparation for moon landings when the first one lasted 8 days and longest moon mission was only 12 days? |
garymilgrom
Member Posts: 1966
From: Atlanta, GA
Registered: Feb 2007
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posted 08-29-2011 07:28 AM
One of the goals of the Gemini program was "long duration flights in excess of the requirements of a lunar landing mission". The 14 day orbital stay was a duration picked on its own, without respect to a lunar mission duration.Source: National Space Science Data Center. |
Max Q
Member Posts: 399
From: Whyalla South Australia
Registered: Mar 2007
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posted 08-29-2011 08:51 AM
I will always remember the line in Lovell's book "14 days in a men's room" made it sound so inviting... Not. |
BBlatcher
Member Posts: 57
From: Savannah, GA, USA
Registered: Aug 2011
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posted 08-29-2011 10:25 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Max Q:
I will always remember the line in Lovell's book "14 days in a men's room" made it sound so inviting... Not.
It wasn't as bad as Apollo 8, where Frank Borman was throwing up and had diarrhea in an enclosed, weightless space. |
Fra Mauro
Member Posts: 1624
From: Bethpage, N.Y.
Registered: Jul 2002
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posted 08-29-2011 10:51 AM
I suppose just the way engineers test components beyond what they are expect to perform at, the doctors wanted to test a little beyond an extended Apollo mission. |
bwhite1976
Member Posts: 283
From: Belleville, IL
Registered: Jun 2011
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posted 08-29-2011 11:09 PM
Stand up next to a Gemini capsule on display at a museum and think how it would be to spend 14 days inside of one. As I recall, the medical doctors had a lot of crazy fears and concerns about those two at reentry and splashdown. That mission pretty much quieted the concern that man could spend an extended length of time in space and not perish or have ill effects upon return. |
MCroft04
Member Posts: 1647
From: Smithfield, Me, USA
Registered: Mar 2005
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posted 08-30-2011 07:28 AM
Every time I go to KSC I stop by and spend some time with the Gemini 9 capsule. You can get up close with it, and imagine how difficult it would have been to spend more than five minutes locked inside; two weeks seems unthinkable. It's also fun to retrace Geno's EVA and how difficult that must have been. |
Max Q
Member Posts: 399
From: Whyalla South Australia
Registered: Mar 2007
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posted 08-31-2011 07:13 AM
quote:
Originally posted by BBlatcher:
It wasn't as bad as Apollo 8, where Frank Borman was throwing up and had diarrhea in an enclosed, weightless space.
I remember reading of a training sim where the crew requested early and immediate deorbit and return. When the controllers said no, the response from the spacecraft was that it would be preferable to wait for rescue on Earth, at least everything would not be floating free round the cabin. |
bwhite1976
Member Posts: 283
From: Belleville, IL
Registered: Jun 2011
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posted 08-31-2011 11:17 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Max Q:
I remember reading of a training sim...
I believe that is from Schefter's "The Race" and involves Conrad and Cooper training for Gemini 5. I love that passage as well, in the training exercise Conrad has appendicitis, and Cooper, who is always cool and composed, replies to Mission Control with something like the "knobs are starting to get slippery." I can't imagine being in an Apollo CSM or Gemini capsule with that going on. |
dtemple
Member Posts: 730
From: Longview, Texas, USA
Registered: Apr 2000
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posted 08-31-2011 09:47 PM
I have long suspected the 14-day duration was in support of the USAF MOL program in which the Gemini spacecraft would be utilized for missions of that length. Perhaps there was some thought given to extended stays (such as could occur with a lunar base) on the moon. However, since an official record shows 14 days was chosen to prove a 7-10 day mission would be no problem if astronauts returned in good condition after two weeks in space then I guess that is the real reason for NASA's choice. |
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