NASA-UAP-D015, Astronaut Scientific Debriefings, 1962-1963

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ROUGH DRAFI': l/13/62 MEMORANDUM to Director, Office of Space Sciences Subject: Considerations and(tecommendations of'Mtwmed detailed and factual description of his observations during the MA' 6 flight. He answered rather well the many and varied questions presented to him during the limited properly Q~"- o. a number of his observations remain of it is evident that the astronaut can perform various scien- tific experiments,~has the aeiil~y capability of doing com act so despite the many limitations imposed.by the. Mercury capsule. Some commezits*on f£01. Glenn's observations are presented of questions, Col. Glenn described the velocity field of the luminous particles, their brightness 8'1./i. outside the shadow of the spacecvaft, the coloring aBa sunlight and their shape. For the velocity field, the particles !all. moved at preeise)y the same speed and !!.ll,.moved a~ precisely the same direction except for particles coming very close to the spacecraft. This occurred similarl:i, :i,Q, all three orbits. From t.l¼e ~-eie Vconsiderations alone, it may be stated that the luminous Jparticles observed by Col. Glenn were not extra~errestial particles but were particles asso­ ciated with the spacecraft or ~fte la~@Mftg e~ the booster.

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The consistency in the observations on the three separate orbits would require that the particles were associated with the spacecraft itself ( I have heard that O'Keefe has i;c;r,r9~9d the life support system which ~ particlei and the luminosity. The fact that the coloring was a yellow-green and the eiiee~ive observational pi,e- became fluorescent in sunlight.~e particles observed in shadow were observed in the scattered light from the spacecraft and were probably illuminated only by visible ~~f the spectrum. The change of angles of the ~particles approaching close th the~ spacecraft~ be attributed to the repJesive charge HD the polarities of the particles and spacecraft were the same. The ability of Col. Glenn to observe the particles under improper dark adaptation ~ indicate'that an astronaut would be in a position to carry through a series of experi'1nents to investigate the physics of Q.QmROMS in the solar environment. P.1wpe1 ~d°\he various gases and dust particles ejected the spacheaft is in sunlight could be ~ by the dark adaptation, Col. Glenn was not able to descibe any

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significant observations of the sta/ ield or the moon. In the absenf e of atmospheric scattEring the sun appeared a brillant white, but showed no signs of corona . It is of interest, however_, to consider Col. Glenn's observation -.'t o{ '- band six to eight degrees above the horizon, with a haze layer about two degrees Although it has been speculated that wide at the top. ~5'~~1!:irl~-.eilli-il~e the multipa~wl:l:,ers of the 'window cause the high likely because of the variatio~ a.ad angle of ~ that he did not see any double imag~ing more, he was able to infii.is8a:ec that the stars e»serve

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recommendations ~paeP te ~a eperen+, following the very successful flight of the Mercury capsule. distributed scientific journal•. In this manner, '4;a.e obd servations would have wide distribution, be properly cridited to the observer, and pePtioala¥ly be edited for correctness . . . Additional support to the astronaut in carrying out scientific observations is warranted particularly in consideration of Col. Glenn's attiftude and interest in carrying out such observations. Several instruments may be added to the spacecraft, within engineering limitations~ to assist in obtaining further detail~data. Col. Glenn suggested that t.ae follo discussioms would be to his interest. Such follow-on discussion is strongely recommended for further questions and exchanges) ~ inform the astronaut aihalysis to ova~~ate-~eP-tao-astPeRa~t of the results of the~ and study of his observations. C . It is of se.e:~ a:t-importanli" that proper dark adaptation methods be incorporated into the spacecraft system so that the astronaut may optimize his visual observations. Investigations of the physics of OQB!!fteft~s and the feasibility of the ~l " th-tificial ~omet "experiment may be carried out directly by the astronaut in a relatively strai-ghtforward way. These experiments should be carried out ae eB Bi@eM ~~ the feasibility of this ~ .

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multi lier :Be! "b systeml ~ series of filters r:- tac ultra viole:!T) should be incorporated into the ~J1~h~~ consideration of the preseno/~lanned manned-space-flight-program, some reeommendatiGns are ~ciences for scientific exploration ei in the !Manned indluding such people as RGefte, ~Utt, Minnaert, Towsey, Sekera, asg £0 forta- to the scientific community as a scientific team fo¥ aireefllsupport of the astronaut-scientists "ao oei-e into sys-sola1Y spa~e.

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LOS ALAMOS SCIENTIFIC LABOltATOllY LOS ALAMOS, NEW MEXICO Dr. Jocelyn Gill Federal Office Bldg. No. 6 Dear Dr. Gill: -The June 29 issue of Science brought to my attention J. H. Glenn's comments on "Th.e High layer~'. It seemed possible that the layer he described could be accounted for as a region of relatively large nitrogen peroxide (N0 concentration, and the past two weeks have been spent in checking this hypothesis • Unfortunately I am not familiar with either photochemistry or upper atmosphere physics so the following analysis leaves much to be desired; the hypothesis seems tenable, however, so I would like to bring it to your attention. Effective path length and comparison with possible surface observations. Referring to Figure 1, the height (H) of a point at a distance (L) from a point on the surface of a sphere of radius (R) can be found from the formula which has the solution

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LOS ALAMOS SCIENTIFIC LABORATORY Fox- th, followins I will assume that the concentr.ation ot absorbins mo1ecu1es