Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in ... - The Black Vault

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First Steps into Space: Projects Mercury and Gemini
NASA Space Task Group
Langley Field, Va.
For Presentation at the Symposium on
Psychophysiological Aspects of Space Flight
San Antonio, Texas
May 26-27, 1960
*Voas- Training Officer, Lt. U.S. Navy Medical Service Corps, assigned to NASA
Space Task Group.
[1]
SUMMARY
This paper gives a general outline of the NASA Project Mercury Astronaut
training program. Basic considerations which entered into the development of
the program are listed. Six primary training areas are described, together with the
training equipment and facilities which have been employed. Problem areas for
future training programs are discussed.
INTRODUCTION
Any training program must be based on three factors: the nature of the
job for which training is required, the characteristics of the men to be trained, and
the facilities and time available in which to do the training. In Project Mercury
the Astronaut’s job involves both flight and nonflight tasks. He is expected to
contribute to systems design and to the development of operational procedures
through his daily contact with the project engineers. It was considered that by
virtue of the selection process, the Astronaut had the required skills to make
these contributions; therefore, no training was attempted for these nonflight
tasks. The Astronaut’s in-flight activities can be broken down into six areas: (1)
“programming” or monitoring the sequence of vehicle operations during launch,
orbit, and reentry; (2) systems management - the monitoring and operation of
the onboard systems, such as the environmental control, the electrical systems,
the communications systems, and so forth (3) the vehicle attitude control; (4)
navigation; (5) communications; and (6) research and evaluation. In addition to
these in-flight activities, the Astronaut has a number of ground tasks connected
with the flight operations. He has a role in the countdown and preparation of the
vehicle; in communications from the ground to the vehicle; and in the recovery
program following the flight. It is for these activities associated with the flight
itself that a training program was undertaken. More detailed descriptions of the
Astronaut’s tasks are available in papers by Slayton (ref. 1) and Jones (ref. 2).
It should be noted that the Astronaut’s job is only one of many associated with
space flight for which training is required. Brewer (ref. 3) has outlined the overall
training requirements for Project Mercury.
[2]