Will the first American to orbit our planet return alive? Yes, says this
leading space expert; here's the step-by-step plan for the pioneering man-shot
The Goal: The ultimate goal of Project Mer
cury is to put a man into orbit around the earth.
This orbit will not be very high, between 100 and
200 miles up. The manned capsule will thus be
safely inside the so-called radiation shell or Van v
Allen layer. How long the man will be in orbit
hinges on a decision still to be made: whether the
first orbital flight should include a sleeping period
(while in orbit) for the astronaut.
If it should be decided to do without a sleeping
period for the first try, the capsule will be in
orbit for about nine hours; that means it will com
plete six circuits around the earth. If, on the other
hand, it should be decided to incorporate a sleep
ing period, the capsule might stay in orbit for as
long as 24 hours.
At the end of either period, the astronaut will
cause his capsule to break out of, the orbit by
firing a rocket charge in the direction of the cap
sule's movement This retarding rocket will cause
the capsule to go into a new orbit in the lower,
denser layers of the earth's atmosphere. v
The Mam As is well known, seven volunteers
were selected for the experiment after medical
men had certified they were physically and men
tally fit for the experiment. It is worth noting that
these seven were the "cream of the crop." The
others of the 60 tested fell slightly short of the
chosen seven in one way or another.
As medical experts had insisted all along, none
of them is very tall (the originally planned upper
limit of 5 feet, 10 inches was raised- by one inch)
because tall, gangling men do not stand physical
strain as well as cowboy movies would have you
believe. Nor are they very young; experience and
mature judgment count for far more than a pos
sible fraction-of-a-second delay in reaction speed.
As for tests they underwent aside from medi
cal tests these were based on what would happen
to them in orbital flight. It would begin with the
high acceleration of the rocket take-off and espe
' cially its initial climb. During the climb, the pilot
will feel as if he weighed up to five times as much
as he really does. Fortunately, all he has to do
during this period is endure the . acceleration.
Such acceleration can be duplicated in a large
centrifuge, and all the candidates went through
this test and will repeat it in training.
As soon as the carrying rocket an Atlas has
used up its fuel, the acceleration will drop to
zero. In everyday language, this means that the
astronaut will feel weightless. Such weightless
ness can be produced in the atmosphere by means
of a jet airplane. The plane is first put into a
power dive to build up speed, then the nose is
pulled up and the engine cut simultaneously. The
plane then flies through an arc like a thrown
stone, and for about half a minute everything in
the plane is weightless.
After breaking out of the orbit, there will be.
the slowing down inside the atmosphere. This,
though technically called deceleration, will feel
like acceleration to the astronaut It will differ
from the acceleration of climb in intensity and
duration. During the climb, acceleration is high
but lasts only a few minutes. During the slow
down in the atmosphere, deceleration will not be
very high but will last for half an hour or more.
The Capsule: High accelerations and even
long-lasting low accelerations are best endured
in a supine or semi-supine position. For best re
sistance, the man should be in about the position
one assumes in a contour chair. The space capsule
is built with this in mind. When it is carried up
into space by the Atlas rocket, it will actually be
upside down that is, the end which will be the
"front" when the capsule re-enters the atmosphere
will be at the bottom. The other end will be pro
tected by a nose cone which later will be shed.
The astronaut will be on his back during take
off to help him withstand the acceleration with
out "blacking out." The capsule has to provide
the following for the man inside: enough oxygen
to last at least three times as long as he is actually
expected to be inside the capsule; and a means
of removing the carbon dioxide he produces by
his breathing.
The capsule must also be air-conditioned.
Contrary to popular opinion, things get quite
warm in space near the earth, as the artificial
satellite Explorer I reported. When Explorer I
went through the earth's shadow, the temperature
dropped to about 45 degrees F. When the satel
lite was on the earth's sunward side, the tempera
ture went up to 85 degrees F. This sounds like a
nice temperature range, a bit chilly at one end
and a trifle too warm at the other. But Explorer I
did not contain life. Man produces considerable
heat himself; and if nothing were done about it,
the low temperature in the manned capsule would
probably be 80 and the high 120 degrees F.
The Preliminaries: Selecting the astronauts
after thorough testing was only one step in the
long list of preliminaries. The capsule needs test
ing, too, for stability during flight through the
atmosphere and for stability when it finally floats
in the ocean. At the moment, six shots are planned
just for preliminary testing of the capsule. Since
Atlas rockets are costly, these six shots will be
made with a specially built rocket nicknamed
Little Joe. Little Joe consists of four solid-fuel
Sergeant rockets clustered together in a metal
shell. For at least four of these shots, simplified
versions of the capsule will be used, minus two
way radiophone and air conditioning, which are
not needed for these tests. One or two shots will
use the real capsule with full instrumentation.
After that there will be a number of shots of
real capsules by means of Redstone rockets, which
are cheaper than Atlas rockets. The Redstone will
carry the capsules (with the simulated weight of
a man) to about 130 miles from Cape Canaveral
out into the Atlantic. But the sensations will be
the same as in an Atlas shot, though of shorter
' duration. In these shots will be a chimpanzee
or monkey, and all seven astronauts will prob
ably experience this flight
There will also be capsule shots using the Jupiter
missile which recently carried monkeys Able and
Baker on a 1,700-mile flight 300 miles into space.
The re-entry strain in these trips will be greater
than in an actual orbital shot because they re
enter at a steeper angle.
The successful return of Able and Baker in
dicates that since the Jupiter re-entry can be
survived, the Atlas traveller will be safe.
Finally, there will be actual orbital shots by
means of Atlas rockets first a capsule with in
struments only; then a capsule with an ape; then
repeats; and finally the man.
The Flight: The actual flight, when it comes,
will be routine to all concerned, since they will
have been through many tests simulating all pos
sible conditions.
The procedure of the final shot will be much
the same as when Project Score (the Atlas
rocket with a tape recorder) was put into orbit.
After two minutes of burning and at a height of
about 50 miles, the Atlas booster will be left be
hind. The missile itself will continue to a height
of 100 miles or so, going into a low orbit around
the earth. Once that is accomplished, the astro
naut has his first job separating the capsule from
the top of the Atlas rocket. Now he orbits by him-
self, being weightless, of course.
Since he must eventually re-enter the atmos
phere with the bottom of the capsule forming the
front end, he has to turn the capsule around.
This can be done by using jets of compressed air,
something already well tested in missiles and in
one artificial satellite, Discoverer II. While in or
bit, the astronaut can have radio-telephone con
tact with home base and with tracking stations.
He may be asked to describe what he sees how
the sky looks when it is black and all the stars
are out; how the earth looks from 150 miles up.
The astronaut will take time out to eat, again
describing his. sensations. Finally, the order will
come to return, and the astronaut will press the
firing button of the retarding rocket. If for some
reason he should be incapacitated, this retro
rocket can be fired from earth stations.
Since the capsule, in its flight through the at
mosphere, must push air out of the way just like
a missile nose, it will gradually lose speed and
come closer and closer to the ground. When the
altitude is below 20 miles, a drag chute' will be
thrown out to steady the capsule in flight and help
reduce its speed. The pull of the drag chute will
also start releasing "chaff' little strips of alu
minum foil which give a good echo in a radar
set, enabling radars to track the flight path.
The capsule is then still moving at supersonic
speed. But it slows down steadily, soon flying at
less than the speed of sound. When the capsule
is below 20,000 feet, the main parachute will be
thrown out, slowing Che capsule to about 20 miles
an hour. Then the capsule will land and to be
sure that it doesn't strike a minor obstacle, it
will land in the ocean.
Next, auxiliary devices will go into action. Com
partments will open to the sea to spread a large
patch of dye. A radio antenna will push itself out
and broadcast. Lights atop the capsule will flash.
The astronaut will probably be picked up in about
half an hour. And if, in response to all the con
gratulations he will receivet he should say he
really didn't do very much, he will be wrong, of
course. But he'll probably mean it
Family Wnklf), July 5, ItS
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