Gemini launch tower

Hi, looking the pictures of Gemini Titan pad LC19, Im wondering what is the
grey pipe runinig along the umbilical tower ?

http://images.ksc.nasa.gov/photos/19...C-65C-8931.jpg

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Didier Capdevila
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le site de l'espace.
Rédacteur à Espace Magazine,
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Am Thu, 17 Nov 2005 00:10:51 +0100 schrieb "Capcom":

Hi, looking the pictures of Gemini Titan pad LC19, Im wondering what is the
grey pipe runinig along the umbilical tower ?

http://images.ksc.nasa.gov/photos/19...C-65C-8931.jpg

Just a guess: Maybe it is an emergency egress for white room personnel
and astronauts into a bunker below the pad if there were a
catastrophic event in the prelaunch phase? Just jump in and be at a
(relatively) safe place.

Another guess: Rusty will find the info on NTRS in a couple of
moments:-)

cu, ZiLi aka HKZL (Heinrich Zinndorf-Linker)
--
"Abusus non tollit usum" - Latin: Abuse is no argument against proper use.

mailto: http://zili.de

Capcom wrote:
Hi, looking the pictures of Gemini Titan pad LC19, Im wondering what is the
grey pipe runinig along the umbilical tower ?

http://images.ksc.nasa.gov/photos/19...C-65C-8931.jpg


I can't tell from the photograph if it is attached to the umbilical
tower or is a foreground object, although if it is the later, you'd
think the photgrapher would take a step to the right ;-)

It looks like it wraps around the tower just under the top platform,
but I can't see shadows or attachements.

/dps

"snidely" wrote in
oups.com:


Capcom wrote:
Hi, looking the pictures of Gemini Titan pad LC19, Im wondering what
is the grey pipe runinig along the umbilical tower ?

http://images.ksc.nasa.gov/photos/19...C-65C-8931.jpg


I can't tell from the photograph if it is attached to the umbilical
tower or is a foreground object, although if it is the later, you'd
think the photgrapher would take a step to the right ;-)


It's pretty clearly part of the tower:

http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/lores/S65-61650.jpg

--
I was punching a text message into my | Reed Snellenberger
phone yesterday and thought, "they need | GPG KeyID: 5A978843
to make a phone that you can just talk | rsnellenberger
into." Major Thomb | -at-houston.rr.com

Reed Snellenberger wrote:

It's pretty clearly part of the tower:

http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/lores/S65-61650.jpg


An additional viewpoint can be very helpful!

/dps

Capcom wrote:
Hi, looking the pictures of Gemini Titan pad LC19, Im wondering what is the
grey pipe runinig along the umbilical tower ?

http://images.ksc.nasa.gov/photos/19...C-65C-8931.jpg

I don't know, but I am certain that this "pipe" was not
present when Titan I test launches took place from
LC19 prior to its refurbishment for the Gemini program.
No "pipes" like this appear on any photos of the other
Titan pads at Cape Canaveral or Vandenberg.

The pipe ran up to the top level of the tower and stopped
abruptly while still vertical. It almost looks like an escape
slide, but escape slide wires appeared to be present on
the outer side of the tower. Whatever it was, it was almost
certainly Gemini-related.

- Ed Kyle

Ed Kyle wrote:
Capcom wrote:
Hi, looking the pictures of Gemini Titan pad LC19, Im wondering what is the
grey pipe runinig along the umbilical tower ?

http://images.ksc.nasa.gov/photos/19...C-65C-8931.jpg

I don't know, but I am certain that this "pipe" was not
present when Titan I test launches took place from
LC19 prior to its refurbishment for the Gemini program.
No "pipes" like this appear on any photos of the other
Titan pads at Cape Canaveral or Vandenberg.

The pipe ran up to the top level of the tower and stopped
abruptly while still vertical. It almost looks like an escape
slide, but escape slide wires appeared to be present on
the outer side of the tower. Whatever it was, it was almost
certainly Gemini-related.

- Ed Kyle

A possibility that just occurred to me is that this pipe might
have handled conditioned air for the white room. The white
room was part of the erector tower rather than the fixed
tower. Pushing conditioned air up a big duct from the HVAC
equipment at the base of the pad into the white room might
have been easier than affixing air handling equipment to
the erector tower itself.

But I'm just guessing!

- Ed Kyle

Ed Kyle wrote:

I don't know, but I am certain that this "pipe" was not
present when Titan I test launches took place from
LC19 prior to its refurbishment for the Gemini program.
No "pipes" like this appear on any photos of the other
Titan pads at Cape Canaveral or Vandenberg.

The pipe ran up to the top level of the tower and stopped
abruptly while still vertical. It almost looks like an escape
slide, but escape slide wires appeared to be present on
the outer side of the tower. Whatever it was, it was almost
certainly Gemini-related.



If it's an escape trunk, the fall would be quite far...and the diameter
doesn't look large enough.
Is it a water pipe to hose down the Titan II in case of a propellant leak?

Pat

Am Thu, 17 Nov 2005 00:47:06 -0600 schrieb "Pat Flannery":

The pipe ran up to the top level of the tower and stopped
abruptly while still vertical. It almost looks like an escape
slide, but escape slide wires appeared to be present on
the outer side of the tower. Whatever it was, it was almost
certainly Gemini-related.
If it's an escape trunk, the fall would be quite far...and the diameter
doesn't look large enough.
Is it a water pipe to hose down the Titan II in case of a propellant leak?

The pipe has an estimated diameter of about 2 feet or a bit more. That
would fulfill both possible hypotheses of an emergency egress or of
being a climatization air duct, seeming a bit narrow for egress but
sufficient. And maybe (if done just right) it could have fulfilled
even both purposes.

I _can_ remember to have read somewhen and -where about such a 'pipe
egress into pad bunker' system for _one_ manned American launch
system, but _cannot_ remember anymore, which one it was. If the
documentations show such a system for Apollo or maybe the Shuttle, it
cannot be Gemini and the answer must be 'ventilation duct'. OTOH, as
we all know about the slide wire system on Shuttle and Apollo, it
might have been Gemini with that egress solution. I guess also, I
should read Gunter Wendt's memories again - the 'pad fuehrer' surely
could have told about...

cu, ZiLi aka HKZL (Heinrich Zinndorf-Linker)
--
"Abusus non tollit usum" - Latin: Abuse is no argument against proper use.

mailto: http://zili.de

"Ed Kyle" wrote in message
ups.com...

Ed Kyle wrote:
Capcom wrote:
Hi, looking the pictures of Gemini Titan pad LC19, Im wondering what is
the
grey pipe runinig along the umbilical tower ?

http://images.ksc.nasa.gov/photos/19...C-65C-8931.jpg


A possibility that just occurred to me is that this pipe might
have handled conditioned air for the white room. The white
room was part of the erector tower rather than the fixed
tower. Pushing conditioned air up a big duct from the HVAC
equipment at the base of the pad into the white room might
have been easier than affixing air handling equipment to
the erector tower itself.

But I'm just guessing!

- Ed Kyle


That to me sounds like the best guess... If it were an escape slide,
wouldn't it make more sense to put it on the side of the tower that faces
_away_ from the Titan, instead of directly beside it? Also, IMHO the
gradient at the top of the tube is not large enough for a person to slide -
it seems pretty close to horizontal - and would they make an escape slide
vertical? That's a free fall, and it's gonna hurt when you land at the
bottom ;-) I would think an escape trunk would have more like 45 degree
angle than vertical.....

But it's just guessing at this point :-)

/J