Mercury in-capsule video?

I was reading Buzz Aldrin's "Men From Earth" book, and he mentioned
that, like Vostok, there were Mercury flights (Schirra's specifically)
that had an in-capsule video camera.

I've never heard of live in-capsule video before Apollo 7 - - is there
a kinescope or video of this Mercury transmission? Were there any
Gemini flights with live video feeds?

TVDad Jim wrote:
I was reading Buzz Aldrin's "Men From Earth" book, and he mentioned
that, like Vostok, there were Mercury flights (Schirra's specifically)
that had an in-capsule video camera.

I've never heard of live in-capsule video before Apollo 7 - - is there
a kinescope or video of this Mercury transmission? Were there any
Gemini flights with live video feeds?

I was Cooper's Mercury-Atlas 9 "Faith 7" flight. He carried a
black-and-white slow scan TV camera. I've only seen stills from the
video. Here are some links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_9

http://www.apolloexplorer.co.uk/phot...9/10073791.htm

http://history.nasa.gov/SP-45/fig3.12.htm

"March 19
The Manned Spacecraft Center received a slow-scan television camera
system, fabricated by Lear Siegler, Incorporated, for integration with
the Mercury-Atlas 9 (MA-9) mission. This equipment, weighing 8 pounds,
could be focused on the pilot or used by the astronaut on other objects
inside the spacecraft or to pick up exterior views. Ground support was
installed at three locations - Mercury Control Center, the Canary
Islands, and the Pacific Command Ship - to receive and transmit
pictures of Cooper's flight. Transmission capabilities were one picture
every 2 seconds."

http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4001/p3b.htm

http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/luceneweb...toId=S63-07856

http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/luceneweb...&hitsperpage=5

http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/lores/S63-07856.jpg

-Rusty

Rusty wrote:
TVDad Jim wrote:
I was reading Buzz Aldrin's "Men From Earth" book, and he mentioned
that, like Vostok, there were Mercury flights (Schirra's specifically)
that had an in-capsule video camera.


The Encyclopedia Astronautica has a reference to a slow-scan camera on
Schirra's MA-6 flight. The following paragraph is from from the
website:

"Going into the sixth orbit, Schirra almost regretfully began his
preparations to return to Earth. On his last pass over South America,
heavy cloud coverage obscured most of the hemisphere but he did catch
sight of a large winding river. He reached for the slow-scan camera and
pointed it downward at the surface of the window to capture the view,
making a panoramic shot of the continent that he thought would aid the
Weather Bureau in continental cloud analyses. Then he stowed the
camera, rearranged the contents of the ditty bag and glove compartment,
and began going down the checklist of actions to be accomplished before
retrofire and reentry."

http://www.astronautix.com/flights/merryma8.htm

This is the first time I've seen a reference to a slow-scan camera on
Schirra's flight.

-Rusty

Rusty wrote:
Rusty wrote:
TVDad Jim wrote:
I was reading Buzz Aldrin's "Men From Earth" book, and he mentioned
that, like Vostok, there were Mercury flights (Schirra's specifically)
that had an in-capsule video camera.


The Encyclopedia Astronautica has a reference to a slow-scan camera on
Schirra's MA-6 flight. The following paragraph is from from the
website:



That should be Schirra's MA-8 flight.

Rusty

On Thu, 23 Mar 2006, Rusty wrote:


Rusty wrote:
TVDad Jim wrote:
I was reading Buzz Aldrin's "Men From Earth" book, and he mentioned
that, like Vostok, there were Mercury flights (Schirra's specifically)
that had an in-capsule video camera.

The Encyclopedia Astronautica has a reference to a slow-scan camera on
Schirra's MA-6 flight.
[...]

http://www.astronautix.com/flights/merryma8.htm

Which quotes SP-4201, *This New Ocean*, the Mercury history
http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4201/ch14-4.htm.

This is the first time I've seen a reference to a slow-scan camera on
Schirra's flight.

I don't think this is right. I recall there was a slow-scan camera on
Cooper's MA-9 flight, and I remember watching pictures from it at the time.
I always thought it was the first one.

And the *Project Mercury Chronology* makes a point of mentioning the
MA-9 camera's arrival at NASA in March 1963, months after Schirra's flight,
but doesn't say anything about a camera aboard MA-8.

And if there were a slow-scan TV camera, I think it would have been
mentioned in *Results of the Third US Manned Orbital Space Flight, October
3, 1962* http://history.nasa.gov/SP-12/ch.1.htm.

I think the reference to a "slow-scan camera" in *This New Ocean* is an
error, possibly one propagated in the Aldrin book.

--
Bill Higgins | "I shop at the
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Internet: | and save money
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Bill Higgins wrote:

I think the reference to a "slow-scan camera" in *This New Ocean* is an
error, possibly one propagated in the Aldrin book.

Here's the passage from page 99 of Aldrin's book:

"Like Vostok 4, Schirra's spacecraft also had a rudimentary TV camera.
So hours into the mission, as he approached the California coast on his
fourth orbit, he "inverted" the spacecraft, with the nose toward Earth
so that the planet was up from his perspective. During the maneuver,
John Glenn told him to say something funny to the 40 million Americans
watching on live television. Wally chuckled and told the country he had
pitched up Sigma 7 so that he could see the full moon in the bottom of
his window, with the upside-down jumble of the Rocky Mountains above
it. He said it reminded him of the old song 'Drifting and Dreaming'
That was as close as Wally got to his usual nonstop humor."

On Fri, 24 Mar 2006, TVDad Jim wrote:
Bill Higgins wrote:

I think the reference to a "slow-scan camera" in *This New Ocean* is an
error, possibly one propagated in the Aldrin book.

Here's the passage from page 99 of Aldrin's book:

"Like Vostok 4, Schirra's spacecraft also had a rudimentary TV camera.
So hours into the mission, as he approached the California coast on his
fourth orbit, he "inverted" the spacecraft, with the nose toward Earth
so that the planet was up from his perspective. During the maneuver,
John Glenn told him to say something funny to the 40 million Americans
watching on live television. Wally chuckled and told the country he had
pitched up Sigma 7 so that he could see the full moon in the bottom of
his window, with the upside-down jumble of the Rocky Mountains above
it. He said it reminded him of the old song 'Drifting and Dreaming'
That was as close as Wally got to his usual nonstop humor."

Presumably Aldrin was looking at something like
http://history.nasa.gov/SP-12/ch.1.htm.

From the flight communications appendix, here is Schirra's fourth pass over
California http://history.nasa.gov/SP-12/app.23.htm, where P is Pilot and
CC is Capsule Communicator, namely John Glenn:

==================

06 05 48 P: California Cap Com, this is Sigma Seven. Over.

06 06 04 CC: Hello Sigma Seven, this is Cal Cap Com. How do you feel?
Over.

06 06 07 P: Read you loud and clear, John. How me?

06 06 09 CC: You're loud and clear. Everything's solid down here. I
guess you got the word on the 6 08 bit. Is that affirm?

06 06 14 P: That's affirmative. You have T/M on me now? I'll power up
before all that jazz.

06 06 20 CC: Okay. Roger. T/M is solid.

06 06 21 P: Okay. I have gyros normal, auto, gyros caged. I am going
to power up and then go- correction gonna power up and fly-by-wire.
Monitoring the ac bus at this time. She comes up to 115 {volts]. I have 25
amps, in good shape.

06 06 45 CC: Roger. We confirm.

06 06 47 P: I'll hold off on my beacon. (Clock's at 6 06 approximately
I guess, when I powered up, so that it would be good at about 6 11. I have
no change in consumables, John. It looks real good here.

06 07 06 CC: Roger. Everything's looking fine here. We have T/M solid
and we confirm your actions here.

06 07 11 P: Roger. I got a real weird attitude at this point. I'll
clue you. Ha, ha, I'm looking down at the earth. I'm sort of coming toward
you head first, inverted.

06 07 23 CC: Roger. You can pick your own up from that standpoint.

06 07 26 P: Yeah. You really get the illusion you're ready for a split
S every once in a while, don't you?

06 07 33 CC: Right.

06 07 40 CC: Wally, I'll give you a count to the 6 08 here so we . . .
start in. They're going to have it on for 2 minutes beginning at 6 08.
That's about 20 seconds, here.

06 07 46 P: Okay, John. Sounds like fun.

06 08 04 CC: Okay, Sigma Seven. This is Cal Cap Com. You're at 6 08.
Two minutes on live TV. Go ahead, Wally.

06 08 10 P: Roger, John. Just came out of the powered down
configuration where we had the ASCS inverter off. It came up in good shape
and will stay on now for the rest of the flight. The amps and volts are
reading properly. The amps are now down to about 19 amps, after we powered
up. They were up to 25 at first. I'm coming toward you inverted this time,
which is an unusual way for any of us to approach California, I'll admit.

06 08 44 CC: Roger, Wally, you got anything to say to everyone watching
you across country on this thing. We're going out live on this.

06 08 50 P: That sounds like great sport. I can see why you and Scott
like it. I'm having a trick now. I'm looking at the United States and
starting to pitch up slightly with this drifting rate. And I see the moon,
which I'm sure no one in the United States can see as well as I right now.

06 09 08 CC: I think you're probably right.

06 09 09 P: Ha, ha. I suppose an old song "Drifting and Dreaming"
would be apropos at this point, but at this point I don't have a chance to
dream. I'm enjoying it too much.

06 09 22 CC: Things are looking real good from here, Wally.

06 09 24 P: Thank you, John. I guess that what I 'm doing right now is
sort of a couple of Immelmanns across the United States.

06 09 37 CC: Roger. Wally, have you had a chance to observe a haze
layer any?

06 09 42 P: Yes, I have. It's quite fascinating; in fact, it's
misleading in the evening. Gives you the feeling that you are pitched down
quite far. Have you noticed that?

06 09 54 CC: Roger.

06 09 55 P: It's projected up much higher in the evening.

06 10 06 P: Ah, I see you got me on a Z Cal

06 10 12 CC: Negative. Did not send Z Cal. Over

06 10 14 P: Oh, somebody did. Maybe Scotty.

06 10 18 CC: May have.

==================

Note the reference to "two minutes on live TV."

Now, if Schirra had a TV camera, why haven't we seen it mentioned in other
sources, and why don't people who followed the coverage in 1962 (like Rusty
and me) recall it?

If Schirra didn't have a TV camera, what is meant by the "live TV" and
"everyone watching across country?" An audio-only hookup? Why does *This
New Ocean* mention a slow-scan camera while *Results of the Third US Manned
Orbital Space Flight* does not?

Can anybody check other sources documenting apparatus carried on this
Mercury flight? What about newspaper or TV accounts from the next day, 4
October 1962, or magazine accounts from that month?

By the way, I'm not familiar with "Drifting and Dreaming," but the lyrics
are at http://www.squareone.org/Hapa/d7.html, and the chorus goes:

Drifting and dreaming
While shadows fall
Softly at twilight I hear you call
Love's old sweet story, told with your eyes
Drifting and dreaming, sweet paradise

(Don't you just love the Web?)

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Fermilab | before the Web, it was so difficult
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