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Mercury Capsule recovered after 38 years
38 years after it's sinking the Mercury capsule that Gus Grissom flew into space. Officially called the Liberty Bell 7, it was recovered from a depth of 15,000 feet (about 3 miles). They were unable to recover the hatch, meaning that the mystery of whether the hatch bolts blew prematurely, or Grissom activated them too early while remain a mystery. It's going to be cleaned and put on exhibiton-the Discovery Channel footed the bill. Hats off to them.
IIRC, burning would've reduced the pressure inside the capsule as it used up the oxygen. Remember that old high school chemistry trick where you get an egg to be sucked into a narrow-mouthed vase by dropping something burning inside the vase?
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
They're not going to try and figure out if the hatch blew or not. At least some people still have class.
I guess Discovery Channel is going to take this thing on tour or something. I cant wait to see it.
-Rich
Because of problems recovering Liberty Bell 7 -- two days were wasted because of bad navigational data and the recovery vessel kept breaking -- Newport had no time to search for the hatch.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
The article was a bit misleading. The capsule won't be going on tour immediately. It's currently in a protective cannister, still submerged in water.
The capsule is being delivered to the Cosmosphere in Hutchision, KS for cleanup and restoration, which may take up to a year. The restoration process, I've heard, will be on full display in a glassed workroom.
After the restoration, it will be taken on tour and then it will be permanently housed at the Cosmosphere. If you are ever going through central Kansas, the Cosmophere is worth checking out. I'm only about an hour away, so I guess I'll go check it out when I can..
More information is here.
jf
Leave the hatch alone; no good can come from it. Either we make Grissom out for a liar, or it turns out that every Mercury astronaut was in far greater danger than previously believed. While I'm not a supporter of "ignorance is bliss", I do believe in "let sleeping dogs lie". Recovering it to find out if Grissom lied is right up there with watching "Real Stories of the Highway Patrol" to get the local gossip... :)
"You can never have too many elephants on your team."
Finding that hatch would be damn near impossible. After all, the Mercury hatch was barely large enough for a man to fit through. Lets say 10 square feet...
The time required to conduct the search, the cost of the equipment involved, the specialists on the task have to get paid.. Or at least must eat.
While knowing the whole thruth may (arguably in this case) be the best way to go, I think this one will die based on economics. (Most things die this way anyway)
-- What you do today will cost you a day of your life.
Mercury Capsule World Tour coming soon. The last one was 38 years ago. :)
Save the whales. Feed the hungry. Free the mallocs.
I grew up about an hour from where the Capsule will end up (the Kansas Cosmosphere). Having grown up with *the* geek museum, the Smithsonian Air and Space was a letdown. If you get ANY chance, go to Hutchinson. Smallish town (40k), but *the* center for space artifacts. Besides the museum, a major industry in town is space restoration (capsules, suits, etc), and recreations (who built the sets for Apollo 13? Not NASA... the Cosmosphere).
Their page is marginal, but it can help you find the place. http://www.cosmo.org You'll understand when you walk in the main door and notice a complete SR-71 Blackbird hanging over you.
There was/is speculation that he panicked. Instead of waiting for the helicopter to arrive he (supposedly) blew the hatch early and climbed out into the sea. Claustrophobia? Anxiety? Who knows.
The bottom of the hatch sat very near the water line and in moderatey rough seas the capsule could take on water. Even a small amount of water would cause the capsule to become unbalanced and list over. If that happened (as it did) the capsule would flood and sink. The $$ loss was only overshadowed by the total loss of onboard telemetry. Basically the sinking totally negated the usefullness of the launch since they lost the capsule and all the data that was supposed to be gathered during the trip.
Right, the Earth to the Moon episode about Apollo 1 was just on HBO the other night. The total time from first notice of fire to the capsule bursting (I assume the hatch, they didn't say) was 15 seconds.
There was a scene where Borman was talking to an engineer about how to open the hatch, it took 20 seconds to perform the steps. They mentioned a re-design involving some kind of explosive releasing mechanism.
Scary shit. Good thing there were brave, dedicated professionals that were willing to put their lives on the line in the name of science and 'patriotism'. We owe a great debt to these men, this series really brings home the courage and dedication these astronauts brought to bear on this amazing endeavor.
>>The answer to the enduring mystery of why the hatch blew may have been in the inside-the-capsule camera that was running when
>>Liberty Bell 7 splashed down. But the camera was found broken open and the film was ruined.
> That is awfully convenient...I wonder what would have caused the camera to break like that...
I rember seeing an interview with one of the astronauts (Apollo, I think) describing his splashdown. The last thing on his checklist was to remove a camera from a mount and secure it. He didn't do it, and on splashdown it came loose and hit him very hard on the head, nearly knocking him unconcious. He said he was lucky he was not killed by it. It could be something similar happened when Grissom hit, and the camera hit the button for the explosive bolts.
Cheers
Eric
If I remember right - it was the actual hull of the capsule that breached from the internal pressure.
Imagine that! A hull designed to withstand spaceflight, re-entry and spashdown, busted from the internal pressure of a fire. With three human beings inside. Jeezus!
-- What you do today will cost you a day of your life.
Also, you had to hit the switch on the escape hatch hard, and you ended up with a bruised hand. Gus didn't have that. This means hardware failure to me.
kmj
The only reason I keep my ms-dos partition is so I can mount it like the b*tch it is.
kmj
The only reason I keep my ms-dos partition is so I can mount it like the b*tch it is.
There is more info, and more pictures at
0 dispatch.html#a
http://www.discovery.com/exp/libertybell7/99072
It has a nice discussion of the explosives on the inside of the capsule, and some more pictures.
I saw a documentary a year or so ago which said that Grissom died in the fire on the Apollo 1 because the hatch could not be opened fast enough to save them.
The hatch had been redesigned just before the incident so that it would take at least 15 seconds (or something like that) to open, thus preventing the possibility of the hatch being opened accidentally, or by a panicked crew member before they could be restrained.
The tragic irony was that Grissom had insisted on the redesign himself. He was a great man and a sad loss.
The pressure at the bottom of the sea would crush a sealed object containing surface level pressure. Remember, the pressure delta from sea level to space is 15 pounds per square inch, but the pressure difference from sea level to the bottom of the sea is hundreds of thousands of pounds per square inch.
www.eFax.com are spammers
It's called a Sofar bomb. The purpose was to deploy when the chutes did, and to detonate when it reached a certain depth. This would be easily visible (audible?) on sonar, and allow for the position of a lost capsule to be computed. It's not really all that dangerous vs all the other things that could go boom on a Mercury capsule. (Ranging from manuvering fuel to retrofire rockets to an explosive hatch that could trigger itself.) IIRC, the sofar bomb was armed and triggered by passing a certain depth.
Obviously, it didn't work.