Heres some history... While the Gemini spaceflights were very successful in proving the concepts of orbital maneuvering, rendezvous, station-keeping and docking ...one thing that eluded NASA was having astronauts perform successful EVAs. If you exclude Ed Whites spacewalk and one other flight - all of the Gemini flights with EVAs were failed experiments: Gene Cernan on Gemini IX, Michael Collins on Gemini X, and Dick Gordon on Gemini XI. This was proving to be a show-stopper and Buzzs EVA on Gemini XII was to be the last one before Apollo. Simulating zero-g on the Earths surface was limited to harness/counter-weight arrangements, air bearing platforms and Vomit Comet flights (limited to between 10 - 30 seconds at a time). When the idea for using an underwater environment for simulating zero-g was presented to NASA suits and engineers (and even some astronauts)...it was pooh-poohed. Buzz, Gene and Scott Carpenter were sold on the idea (all 3 having been active scuba divers) and helped to convince the Powers That Be to try neutral buoyancy via water tank out. At first - an attempt to use a military swimming pool on Langley AFB turned out to involve way too many lookie-loos. So - a small firm named Environmental Research Associates founded by Sam Mattingly and Harry Loats of Randallstown, NJ - was contracted to set things up. They arranged the use of the 75-foot boys swimming pool at the McDonogh School in Owings Mill, MD for testing purposes. As we all know now - this technique basically saved the day and allowed Buzz to show on Gemini XII that EVA could be performed easily. [Eh...I got most of it right off the top of my head.] articles.baltimoresun/2009-07-19/news/0907170172_1_mcdonogh-school-astronauts-aldrin
Posted on: Fri, 30 May 2014 03:51:20 +0000
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