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Cooper's Mercury flight



 
 
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  #1  
Old September 13th 12, 04:45 PM posted to sci.space.history
Jan Philips
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Posts: 54
Default Cooper's Mercury flight

So many things were going wrong near the end of Cooper's Mercury
flight - did the flight director consider bringing him down early?
  #2  
Old September 14th 12, 04:31 PM posted to sci.space.history
Joseph Nebus
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Default Cooper's Mercury flight

In Jan Philips writes:

So many things were going wrong near the end of Cooper's Mercury
flight - did the flight director consider bringing him down early?


A good question. A casual reading of _This New Ocean_ and
the Mercury Chronology ---
http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4201/ch14-6.htm
http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4001/p3b.htm

--- doesn't indicate anything, but it does indicate concern over the
false .05 g indicator.

This might be the simplification of events for the sake of
narrative. It might also be that the bundling of malfunctions was
so close to the scheduled reentry time --- most of the 21st orbit was
spent working out the retrofire procedures --- that there wasn't the
chance to bring him down early except in case of immediate disaster,
so it wasn't considered. Possibly.

I don't on casual searching find a transcript of ground-to-
spacecraft transmission, thanks in part to abundant UFO nuttery that
has attached itself to Gordon Cooper.

--
http://nebusresearch.wordpress.com/ Joseph Nebus
Current Entry: Reading the Comics, September 11, 2012 http://wp.me/p1RYhY-jc
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  #3  
Old September 14th 12, 05:01 PM posted to sci.space.history
Brian Lawrence
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Posts: 34
Default Cooper's Mercury flight

On 14/09/2012 16:31, Joseph Nebus wrote:
In Jan Philips writes:

So many things were going wrong near the end of Cooper's Mercury
flight - did the flight director consider bringing him down early?


A good question. A casual reading of _This New Ocean_ and
the Mercury Chronology ---
http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4201/ch14-6.htm
http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4001/p3b.htm

--- doesn't indicate anything, but it does indicate concern over the
false .05 g indicator.

This might be the simplification of events for the sake of
narrative. It might also be that the bundling of malfunctions was
so close to the scheduled reentry time --- most of the 21st orbit was
spent working out the retrofire procedures --- that there wasn't the
chance to bring him down early except in case of immediate disaster,
so it wasn't considered. Possibly.

I don't on casual searching find a transcript of ground-to-
spacecraft transmission, thanks in part to abundant UFO nuttery that
has attached itself to Gordon Cooper.


It's in the Mercury Project Summary, Appendix F.

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/Hi...P-45/app.f.htm

--

Brian W Lawrence
Wantage
Oxfordshire
  #4  
Old September 15th 12, 04:38 AM posted to sci.space.history
Jan Philips
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Posts: 54
Default Cooper's Mercury flight

On Fri, 14 Sep 2012 17:01:04 +0100, Brian Lawrence
wrote:

It's in the Mercury Project Summary, Appendix F.

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/Hi...P-45/app.f.htm


Thanks, that is a lot to read. They don't seem too worried.
  #5  
Old November 12th 12, 11:15 AM posted to sci.space.history
[email protected]
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Posts: 30
Default Cooper's Mercury flight

On Friday, September 14, 2012 10:38:51 PM UTC-5, Jan Philips wrote:
On Fri, 14 Sep 2012 17:01:04 +0100, Brian Lawrence

wrote:



It's in the Mercury Project Summary, Appendix F.




http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/Hi...P-45/app.f.htm




Thanks, that is a lot to read. They don't seem too worried.


....It's a *really* fun read if you read it out loud, and try to emulate Gordo's particular "Aw shucks" accent. That being said, here's the part that might answer your question:

"We just had a report from the Cape. Based on Smithsonian 2, you have approximately 20 over 25 orbits. This gives you approximately three times as much on more conservative estimates."

....So essentially here's what appears to have happened: Gordo's flight was planned with at least 7-8 orbits at the bare minimum, but with orbital insertion being as on-target as it was, the estimate was bumped up by almost three times the original minimum estimate. Thus Gordo's flight was given between 20 to 25 orbits, now based on the consumable rates at the time Gordo was given the "go" for at least 20 orbits.

....As history played out, by the time Gordo got to the 19th orbit, the issue with the 0.05G switch showed up, and by the time he'd completed the 21st orbit, not only were they planning for a reentry by the 22nd orbit - Gordo was fed the updated retro data during the 20th thru 21st orbits - before he even got to that orbit he started having trouble with the inverter as well as an O2 issue. Prior to this, his consumables reports showed that Faith 7 was still within nominal for at least 25 orbits.

So, in a nutshell, they didn't exactly bring Gordo down early. It was more of a situation where the flight had exceeded its conservative minimum by three times, and the spacecraft decided for all involved to end the mission while they still were on a winning streak.

Hope this helps, Jan!

OM
 




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