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

Exploring the Unknown 339
McDivitt
Just as well. We wouldn’t want to disturb those radiator tubes too much,
White
No. Well, now that we’re back, we’ll have some conclusions on the adapter area.
I made it a point right from the begin ning to take a look at the thermal lines,
the thermal paint on the adapter. It looked like it was in good shape. It was all
there. There was discoloration around the attitude thrusters, particularly from
the thrusting. The color of the thrusting is just like the RCS thrusting -- nice and
clear plume. It looked like from outside, though, that I could see a lot more of
the plume than I could when I was sitting inside the spacecraft looking out at the
RCS thrusters firing. Again, the camera was not attached in an opportune manner
to operate.
McDivitt
Which camera? The camera on the spacecraft?
White
I’m really after that camera on the gun. That one wasn’t attached good. The
camera on the spacecraft was okay. It was a little difficult to attach because of the
attachment [4-61] on the bottom of it. You can’t have it at any angle to make it
engage. It has to be perfectly flat with the mounting plate on the bottom. A big
conclusion that I came to -- and I’ll see how you feel about this one, Jim -- I feel
that storage in the back of the adapter section was certainly a very high priority for
later missions. I feel that we can adequately store equipment in the adapter area,
particularly larger pieces of equipment that we don’t have room for in the crew
station or pieces we don’t have particular use for in the early part of the flight.
If we can lick the problems in opening and closing of the hatch, we can store
equipment in the back of the adapter section as a routine operation.
McDivitt
That’s right. I think the extravehicular activities have proved to other people what
we already knew a long time ago that EVA is quite simple. I think the thing we’ve
got to iron out is the hatch opening and closing. This is really our problem. I
don’t think you or I will ever have any doubt about the extravehicular activity.
That was, I thought, going to be pretty straightforward. It looked like to me it was
pretty straightforward.
White
I felt that I could operate equipment out there. I could assemble equipment. I
could put pins in, pull pins out, and screw things in. I did all these things during
the flight. I turned the gun on, and I put in the pin to operate the umbilical
guide. I attached the camera. I don’t think you could do these operations very
effectively with big heavy gloves on. Although my gloves operated satisfactorily, I
think that for assembly of items you want to have -- you ought to look into the
glove area a little more thoroughly and try to get a piece of a glove with some type
of a sur face that will give us some heat protection and gives us a high sensitivity of
feel through it. The big conclusions, the final conclusions, that I’d like to draw are
that EVA can be made a normal routine operation if the following modifications
are made to the spacecraft: