Gemini and Mercury from the Glenn Archives

I had the pleasure of looking over the John Glenn Archive at Ohio State
University. I didn't have a whole lot of time so I only looked at a few
items. Fortunally there was a copying service so I was able to get
copies of some of the more useful items.

Retro Times for all the recovery zone for Schirra's Sigma 7 mission
(MA8)
http://www.ibiblio.org/mscorbit/orbi...etro_times.pdf

Capsule 13 (FriendShip 7) Mission Profile (block diagram)

http://www.ibiblio.org/mscorbit/orbi...on_profile.jpg

Gemini Capsule Control Panel (preliminary)

http://www.ibiblio.org/mscorbit/orbi...trol_panel.jpg

John Glenn Archives (NASA Records)

library.osu.edu/sites/archives/glenn/collection/nonsenate/nonsenatepapers3.htm

Robert Conley

P.S. Apparently Deke Slayton really wanted foot pedals for controlling
yaw in both Mercury and Gemini spacecraft. I read a couple memos for
both mercury and gemini where he kept recommending that foot pedal be
used. He felt that twisting the joystick would make it too easy to
induce roll motion as well as yaw and vice versa.

Glenn didn't see any problem with twisting the Joystick for yaw
provided the breakout forces (the amount of deflection before the
joystick actuates) were set right.

On 23 Nov 2005 20:44:49 -0800, "Robert Conley"
wrote:

Apparently Deke Slayton really wanted foot pedals for controlling
yaw in both Mercury and Gemini spacecraft. I read a couple memos for
both mercury and gemini where he kept recommending that foot pedal be
used. He felt that twisting the joystick would make it too easy to
induce roll motion as well as yaw and vice versa.

....It wasn't just Deke who wanted the pedals. IIRC, Al, Gordo, and
especially Gus, were in favor as well. The pedals were part of the way
an airplane is flown, and seeing as how these were pilots, they wanted
their spacecraft to have the same sort of controls that they were
already used to.

OM
--
]=======================================[
OMBlog - http://www.io.com/~o_m/omworld
Let's face it: Sometimes you *need*
an obnoxious opinion in your day!
]=======================================[

OM wrote:
On 23 Nov 2005 20:44:49 -0800, "Robert Conley"
wrote:

Apparently Deke Slayton really wanted foot pedals for controlling
yaw in both Mercury and Gemini spacecraft. I read a couple memos for
both mercury and gemini where he kept recommending that foot pedal be
used. He felt that twisting the joystick would make it too easy to
induce roll motion as well as yaw and vice versa.

...It wasn't just Deke who wanted the pedals. IIRC, Al, Gordo, and
especially Gus, were in favor as well. The pedals were part of the way
an airplane is flown, and seeing as how these were pilots, they wanted
their spacecraft to have the same sort of controls that they were
already used to.

OM
--

Armstrong wanted bike pedals. Oh wait, wrong Armstrong. Nevermind. ;-)

-Rusty

Rusty wrote:

Armstrong wanted bike pedals. Oh wait, wrong Armstrong. Nevermind. ;-)

-Rusty



Say, when they were short on electrical power on Apollo 13...
The other alternative was copper and zinc strips in the Tang bags, like
the Professor suggested to Skipper. :-)

Pat