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

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First Steps into Space: Projects Mercury and Gemini
But the real knowledge of Mercury lies in the change of the basic
philosophy of the program. At the beginning, the capabilities of Man were not
known, so the systems had to be designed to function automatically. But with the
addition of Man to the loop, this philosophy changed 180 degrees since primary
success of the mission depended on Man backing up automatic equipment that
could fail.
[2]
INTRODUCTION
As the first manned space flight project of the United States, Project
Mercury in its various aspects have [sic] been discussed in great detail by almost
all members of the project. The purpose of my discussion today will not be to
repeat the technical details of Project Mercury, but to outline and discuss some
of the significant contributions the program has made to the area of space
technology.
It is important to note that 52 hours of manned orbital flight, and less
than five hours of unmanned orbital flight by the Mercury spacecraft have
produced a large book of new knowledge. The hours spent on the ground
development and training, the preparations for flights, and the ballistic flights
cannot be calculated, but it contributed heavily to the knowledge we ultimately
gained in space flight.
The three basic aims of Project Mercury were accomplished less than
five years ago from the start of the program. The first U.S. manned space flight
program was designed to (1) put man into Earth orbit (2) observe his reactions
to the space environment and (3) bring him back to Earth safely at a point where
he could be readily recovered. All of these objectives have been accomplished,
and some have produced more information than we expected to receive from
conducting the experiment.
The whole Mercury project may be considered an experiment, in a
certain sense. We were testing the ability of a man and machine to perform in a
controlled but not completely known environment.
The control, of course, came from the launch vehicle used and the
spacecraft systems included in the vehicle. Although we knew the general
conditions of space at Atlas insertion altitudes, we did not know how the specific
environment would affect the spacecraft and the man. Such conditions as vacuum,
weightlessness, heat, cold, and radiation were question marks on the number
scale. There were also many extraneous unknowns which would not affect the
immediate mission but would have to be considered in future flights. Such
things as visibility of objects, the airglow layer, observation of ground lights and
landmarks, and atmospheric drug effects were important for future reference.
The program had to start with a series of design experiments. We had
little criteria for the space vehicle. If we could find that a certain type of heat
shield could make a successful reentry and a certain shape of spacecraft, we
would have the basis for further design of systems.