posted 11-12-2012 11:36 AM               

I have often wondered about that technical flaw Schirra discovered. Perhaps it is that a Mercury astronaut would not be able to exit the capsule in a fully pressurized suit.

posted 11-12-2012 01:47 PM               

Concerning a Marooned rescue, with the later explosive hatch design on the Mercury craft, I imagine that could have been jettisoned, but the resulting delta-Vee from the jettison would have pushed the craft away a bit (I've never been able to get a 1964 copy of the book to read, so I am just speculating here). Who knows what hitting that plunger would have done to a suited hand though as the kick-back force hopefully wouldn't tear the coverings.

Schirra being the astronaut most closely associated with the suit testing probably would have referred to a technical error in that front. From what I can recall about Mercury suits, their time of pressurization after a full loss of cabin pressure was relatively low as it was emergency use only. Plus, their outer coverings were never intended to handle direct exposure to space, otherwise as soon as an astronaut got out if it were in sunlight, he would have started to get slow roasted like Gene Cernan's posterior when the thermal coverings tore on his Gemini suit back there on Gemini 9 during his EVA (but nobody had yet performed an eva in 1964).

posted 11-13-2012 08:32 AM               

One question that hasn't been addressed is, was the Mercury suit totally compatible with the Gemini environmental systems? If not, wouldn't there be problems keeping the rescued astronaut alive even assuming a successful transfer? How long would an emergency re-entry take?

posted 11-13-2012 01:11 PM               

I reread part of the '64 version of Marooned last night. As info:

1. When Pruett (the stranded astronaut) blows Mercury's hatch, no mention is made of spacecraft attitude or translation motions caused by the hatch's departure.

2. Pruett has a small oxygen bottle that he straps to his leg. It has a 15 minute supply. A similar configuration is shown on the cover of the March 1964 issue of National Geographic magazine depicting a Gemini EVA.

3. Pruett has no difficulty exiting the Mercury capsule in his pressurized suit!

4. The emergency EVA takes place at night (illumination is supplied by the nearby Soviet Vostok, which is equipped with a floodlight), so there are no solar heating issues with the Mercury spacesuit.

5. Caidin (the author) emphasizes that both astronauts realize they must make slow, deliberate motions during their EVA or their movements will become uncontrollable.
   
   
6. There is no problem connecting Pruett's Mercury spacesuit to Gemini's ECS. This is fortunate at he only had one minute of oxygen left ... cue the drama.

posted 11-13-2012 01:45 PM               

Given how agonizingly slow Hollywood can be, it is amazing Marooned was optioned and made when it was. While the first story would potentially have been exciting, I've found that fiction based on "past" events told relatively soon after doesn't tend to draw in movie audiences as much as one with a premise where "this could still happen". Plus, Apollo was all the rage at that point and AAP (the space lab shown was pre-Skylab as it was a wet-lab based concept) was on the drawingboard for taking place very soon.

We can certainly credit the Marooned movie with help getting the ball rolling on ASTP as when the then president of the National Academy of Sciences told his Soviet counterparts about how the Soviet cosmonaut was protrayed in the film (while also stressing that the Soviets had turned down every previous opportunity to take part in joint space projects during the 1960s), they were positively shocked.

Getting back to the original question, doing the EVA at night at least helps in one regard, although the extreme cold of life in space shadow might cause other problems as well. Although, 15 minutes I suppose "might" be enough time. Not taking into account the delta vee and attitude situation if the hatch got blown is a bit of an oversight though as given how relatively light a Mercury is and how powerful those bolts were, I certainly wouldn't want to be in the general path of the spacecraft hatch if it popped off AT ALL. For an astronaut performing an EVA, trying to pull Mercury's external lanyard would also be just asking for trouble as well (the result being an astronaut AND a craft ending up turning as Pete Conrad might call it "a** over tea kettle").

posted 11-13-2012 02:19 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Headshot:
When Pruett (the stranded astronaut) blows Mercury's hatch, no mention is made of spacecraft attitude or translation motions caused by the hatch's departure.

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posted 11-14-2012 02:24 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by robsouth:
The windows of two Mercury spacecraft were cracked when they blew the hatch following recovery so it packed a substantial force.

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Curious as to know where this came from. The only window damage recorded in the final Mercury programme report was a small star shaped impact crater on the window of 'Faith 7'. This was thought to have been caused by a micro-meteorite strike.