Gemini VIII: Control System Problem

Thanks for that very specific rendition of events. Question: WHY was
it deemed necessary to undock the Agena? And, where did you get this
description?

wrote in message
oups.com...
Thanks for that very specific rendition of events. Question: WHY was
it deemed necessary to undock the Agena? And, where did you get this
description?

Armstrong thought undocking would slow the spin rate.

Tim K wrote:
Thanks for that very specific rendition of events. Question: WHY was
it deemed necessary to undock the Agena? And, where did you get this
description?

Armstrong thought undocking would slow the spin rate.

Also to allow for analysis of the two spacecraft. Countering the spin with the
Gemini thrusters wasn't working. So, isolate the problem and determine if the
Agena is what is malfunctioning or the Gemini.

-A.L.

On Sat, 25 Dec 2004 00:01:51 -0600, rk
wrote:

And Jim Lovell thought "they were very cool ..."

[BIG FAT SNIP FROM HELL!]

....And rk gives his favorite honorary Jew his Chrisnukkah present,
which gladly accept in the gift wrapping of GODDAMN ****ING UNTRIMMED
QUOTES!!!!

:-) :-) :-)

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

BINGO. "The reason
we didn't hear it is, you only hear [the thruster] when it fires; you
don't
hear it when it's running steadily. I didn't =85 know that at the time,
but I
figured it out."
I can see Gus smiling now. As he said, Neil did "not know how to fly."
:-)
Neil cut loose the Agena for nothing, and ultimately cost the mission
by firing up the Reentry Control System.

"MasterShrink" wrote in message
...
Tim K wrote:
Thanks for that very specific rendition of events. Question: WHY was
it deemed necessary to undock the Agena? And, where did you get this
description?

Armstrong thought undocking would slow the spin rate.

Also to allow for analysis of the two spacecraft. Countering the spin with
the
Gemini thrusters wasn't working. So, isolate the problem and determine if
the
Agena is what is malfunctioning or the Gemini.

-A.L.
There was really no downside to undocking from the Agena. Had it turned out
that the Agena was not the problem, and the Gemini's problem was fixable
without using the RCS, then they could have turned the Agena's
stationkeeping back on and then redocked. In fact, the mission plan called
for an undocking and a redock with Scott at the controls (after the EVA,
IIRC).

Nice analysis, except for one thing: With one, the other, or BOTH
spacecraft spinning wildly, they would have expended a TON of fuel
trying to redock, even if it had been possible.

wrote in message
oups.com...
Nice analysis, except for one thing: With one, the other, or BOTH
spacecraft spinning wildly, they would have expended a TON of fuel
trying to redock, even if it had been possible.

They would have had to stop the spin anyway. The logical first action was to
undock for two reasons:
1. There were dangerous stresses building up on the Gemini nose section,
which could have led to loss of the spacecraft.
2. The Agena was initially viewed as the likely cause of the the problem.
Note that if the Agena is the cause, it's non trivial to stop the spin with
the Gemini, due to the off-center thrusters.

The logical second action, when the Gemini failed to dampen the spin on its
own, was to turn off the Gemini's thrusters. They had to act fast since they
were in danger of blacking out, which probably would have led to loss of the
spacecraft. Thus, they couldn't afford the time to troubleshoot which
thruster was causing the problem.

Once they had the Gemini main thrusters off, they had to start up the RCS to
dampen the spin, since again, they were in danger of blacking out, which
might have led to loss of the craft. (It was less likely once the problem
stopped getting worse.)

Yes, I am aware that is the "official" story. However, I now have the
entire transcript, and am going through it. I'll be able to post,
courtesy of the Data Storage Equipment, EXACTLY what was going on. It
will just take until the weekend, as a friend died unexpectedly and has
thrown the week off (obviously.) Bear with me; I'll post this and MUCH
more. :-)

You REALY need to get off the Vicodin.