COLLECTIVE RNCHLEDOE GAINED FROM G2MINI Charles W. Mathews Metionel Aerousutics and Space Adaint stration ‘Manned Spacecraft Center, Ruston, Texas gomary ‘The Gemini Program has comprised 12 space flights, 10 of voich were named operetions, ‘The information gained te difficult to wumerize wititn a brief paper, but more detailed information has nd vill continue to be mae evatleble to those who have m interest in St. With minor exceptions, the objectives of the progres were met, having deen ‘expended vell beyond ariginal concepts and exenined in considerably more depth then expected. Genint lgaven & legacy of results that, hopefaliy, will further socelerate man's efforts to explore and Utilize the frontier of apace, a_Introtudtton The Gemini Progran with its series of manned e Flights hes been completed, and it 18 an sp propriate time nov to sumarixe ond interpret the Femults of these flights. At the outset, the Gemini Progran was based upon the exploration of several major objectives of manned operations. These objectives (Iisted in Pig 1) were to validate ‘OmiGmAL OBsECTIVES ‘ACUEVED ORIECTIVES IRENEZVOUS AND DOCK REVOEZVOUS ANo 90CK ‘= MITAL GE MORSTRATION = REWETVOUS vARATIONS. ‘Long DURATION EXTIAVENICDLAR ACTIVITIES Maneuvenmnc wae OocKeD ‘CONTROLLED REEWTRY ereRUENTs ‘TETHERED VENICLE OPERATIONS ew SvSTEMS FEASIBILITY Lowe DURATION ‘CowTROULED AMO LanoING Migure 1, Objectives of the Genial Progren long-duration operstions of several weeks, to dem- onstrate rendezvous and docking with another vehi- cle, and to develop a technique for controlled Land Landings. A great deal of concentration was placed on the Firat two objectives and those have been suc~ cesafully accomplished. ‘The third objective was partially accomplished with a number of denonstra- ‘tions of precision mmeuvering into a landing area, ‘but Lend lending was not denonstrated. ‘As opportunities arose, the orginal objectives were expinded to include the investigation of extra vehicular operations, the conduct of lerge orbital Maneuvers using & docked stage, the contust of Sclentific, medical, end technical experiments, and operations with two tethered vehicles. Substantial {information in all of these areas has been obtained, particularily during the later half of the flight ‘Program. Genini hea provided information in many other ‘areas not entirely obvious from these stutenents of objectives. They include: (2), Develogent of reliable systens conftgur tions through the applications of redundency, mod- war design, and simplifications afforded by the utilization of crew capebilities. (2) Reduction in qualification flights, and rapid progreaston to an operstional phase through use of a comprehensive ground-test program. (3) Decrease in Launch preparation times, end reduction in leunch intervals by delivery from the manufacturere of thoroughly tested and flight-ready vehicles, (4) Progressive buiidup in flight complexity to hieve a Logical extrapolation of the experience ined from previous flights. (5), Flexibility in flight planning and opera~ ‘tions to capitalize on successful flights end min~ Smize the impact of flight problens. (6) Achievement of « high degree of proficiency of flight crews and ground personnel through experi= fence gained from 10 manned flights. These and other similar areas are discussed in Ref- ferences 1 and 2 and will not be discussed in detail herein, ‘The dntent will be to concentrate on flight results, I on Flights Results of long-duration flights are also re- ported in Reference 2, and those obtained subsequent to that report remain’essentially unchanged. Tae weightless environment has not produced difficulties except during extravehicular activities (EVA), vnieh WAIL be discussed later. Wo evidence existe of significant physiological or paychological effects either noted or measured. Although some cardiovas- cular deconditioning is apparent on return to « one g enviroment, it has not affected crev finc- tion, and the condition is short-lived. Ro atscri- entation exiets, and the flight crew can accurately perform systens mansgenent, control functions, and all other operations required onboard the apt cratt. Confinenent has been « surprisingly minor probles area even in the mall volume of the Genini space- craft. The difficulties appear to be alleviated by the veightleas state because of the absence of prea= sure points on the body. Pressure suits have sce tolerable, but objectionable features, mainly caused dy their bulk and ‘clumsiness. The three types of suite used in the Gemini Program are ahom in Fig- ure 2, To circumvent possible difficulties during ‘the Ui-day Might of Gemini VIT a spectal Light weight mult, which Ls also doffsble, was developed. ‘The astronauts found their confort greatly eachanced in the doffed-suit condition, and the cabin providedINTRAVEHICULAR EXTRAVEHICULAR STAND, LIGHTWEIGHT Figure 2, Taree types of Genini spacesuits 4 compigtely sutiatuctory enviroment. the pres- gare sult aleo produces some mubjective Siaconfort "4m that the mechantam of cooling prinarily involves ‘the evaporation of perspiration, Care mst be ex- ercised to maintain adequate water intake to avold excessive dehydration. The stovage, handling, and reatowage of Loose cabin equipment has ben's tedious activity during all Geuini flights. This difficulty should ve re~ @uced in a larger spececraft, but it probably vill still be important. ‘Typical itens that mst be stowed are shown in Pigure 3, and Figure 4 gives categories and numbers of stoved items. Numerous planning reviews and stowage reherosls are required to establish proper locations, sequences of stovage and unstovage, and center of gravity change: icles (food bags, cleansing ‘the like) is particularly vent flights special hatch openings have been programed to facilitate the main- tenance of a clean and uncbstructed cabin, 2 FOOD" PACKS Figure 3. ‘Typicel Gemini stowage ivema“FWD COMPARTMI EN Typicel Genint stovage itens Figure 3. Another aspect of space flight worthy of mention 4s the achlevenent of sdequate sleep. Perhaps vhen Flights becone more routine, satletactary sleep riods will be obtained, fo the present, inadequate sleep in depth end length ts tovartably encountered Guring the first sleep period of « flight. Sleep Qdequicy also exhibits cousidersble verietion on subsequent days, varying 10 & sonevbat cyclic fach~ Jon aa fatigue builds wp. Typictl sleep cycles es reflected in heart rate are shown in Figure 5. The TS STOWAGE Sen cso rnorod ® 2 wexrmoto, 29 GapmHoTO Figure 4. Categories and numbers of stowage itene baal TI post-p.acrour}} 4 160 | t 1 1 40 1 t uo} 4 y vearrwre, r00f! BEATS } 20 T 1 60! t $ netaopine ~} 1 40 aa pasttete pate ob hot nb tietas| DAYS, 1 205 we 48 Cy 144 6 208 240 272 304 336 GROUND ELAPSED TUE, HR Figure 5. Typicel sleep cycles as reflected in heart 1 depri obtained. It 48 possible that nedication may be elp in coping with this aifficulity. In any cese, flight planning should account for thts condition such an ty making the second day of « flight rele- tively less strenuous vith respect to activities planed. In apite of this eltuation, Genial astro- haute have alvays returned fron their flights in €008 physical condition, and from en overall stand point they exhibited only Light-to-noderate fatigue. IIT. Rentezvous Operations Seven different types of rendezvous motes have been investigated during Genint, mont of which are {ndicated in Figure 6, ‘Three types vere used for ‘the initial rendervous after Lift-off, three eddi- tonal types vere investigated using re-rentezvous techniques, ant one wat a dual rendszvous snvolving two different target vehicles. Rach of these opers tons have been successful. This auccese has pro- vided confidence in the ability to cerry out such rations; hovever, rendezvous still is recognized Taighly precise tesk thet a rather unforgiving> lm ws ut a5 pe | 2 ae ee ba ae i ea Ra breviacaiem eee ne — papas * a 3 3” ee | " 3, | a [ tre a ee AHEAD | BEHIND: ‘BEHIND | AHEAD AWEAD | BEHIND Memmieiccinae, concorar oan Serne rau conturneroueeion ‘TERMINAL PHASE VARIATIONS Tigure 6. of errors late in the operation because of the Large energy expenditures involved in their correc- ‘thon. Turning first to Lift-off considerations, one Anteresting result 1s that the experience to date does not. strongly indicate a need for extensive ‘As show in Figure 7, the Genial Asunch windove, ‘aun 2 Sees Be g nS eaze Imunches since Gemini Vv.” have been essentially on ‘time (or else the launch has been scrubbed). BY suitable planning, minor probleas oan be eastly. absorbed in the count, end if major problens occur practical lmunch-window lengths are not particu- larly helpful. Although « similtaneous countdown of both vehicles has been extensively used in Relative trajectory plots shoving rendevouls mode variations Gemini, there is nothing in the results to indicate ‘that thie te Height adjust, plane change, and phasing maneu- vera that positin the spacecraft at an offset poiat froa which the terminal phase ie initiated have been accurately accomplished both under grcund-control and ty means of coboerd guidance, Because of exror propagation in the inertial guidance system rendes- ‘Yous, accomplished scley frou onboard information, are iimtted to fairly rapid operations. with the Gemini systen it appeara thet this. capebility ex- tends to rendezvous completed by the fourth revolu= tion, and on Geaint XT a precise one-orbit, rendezvous was accomplished during the first revolu- ‘tion based entirely on onboard computations. Ground control of rendezvous 1s highly effective when muf~ fictent time 19 available for date gathering and processing. Rendervous during the first revolution Presented too rapid « maneuvering sequence for @ound control, and in all cases corrections after {initiation of the terminal phase have used onboard Anforaation. ‘The terminal phase of rendezvous comences with ‘the initiation of transfer to the target from the offset point and concludes with the establisiment of tion keeping with the target. Tats phase in- volves precision maneuvers, and, finally, cerefu. control of closing rates and line-of-sight rates Tuol expenditures encountered during terminal cpera- t1ons are compared with tha minimum possible in Fig- ure 8. A considerable variation existe between the ratio of actual-to-ainimm propellant for various ra CONDITIONS A START OF TERMINAL PHASE. SoeLLPTE Abels ul. es EQU-PERIOD | ns ‘Aae20 8. Figure 6, Rendezvous propelient usage types of termine] phase conditions, and elso for aifferent flights using the sane or sinilar terminal phase conditions. This letter variation reflects the eritical neture of this task, in that fairly saell velocity vector errors can cascade to high propellant consumption or fatlure to complete the Fendezvous. The braking operetion is particulerly erities1, Braking too soon may sctuslly increese Line-of-sight contol requirements, end more tine <8 ‘spent controlling during the closing sequence. On the other hend, 4f high line-of-aight rates are encountered, braking hes to occur early enough to @llow correction of line-of-sight rates before this target 1 passed. A number of terminal-phase operations have deen satisfactorily completed by using optical techniques alone (no cloced-loop radar-computer operation). Optical rendezvous requires cereful control of Lighting conditions, and # stabilized reference auch fas en inertial platform is @ very desirable device. During eimletions, renervous have been effected without pletform information, but success is of relatively low probebility. ‘Another point to note is the low theoretical (end actual) propellant con= sumption Involved with the offset ccndition enployed in the re-rendezvous on Genini 1. The spacecraft 4a placed in the sane orbit as the terget vehicle, but with e trailing displacenent. This type of ter= mine) phase hae generated considerable interest in ite application to certain rendezvous operations, particulerly vhere e ground cysten ia used to set up the terminal phase, IW. Station Keeping, Docking, end Docked Meneuvers Station Keeping with enother vehicle encountered aifficulties on Genint IY, but, with « better under= standing of constraints, this activity has proved to be streightforverd on subsequent flights. Station Keeping involves holding ete fixed position with rospeck to a target, using instinctive up-dom, sideways, and fore aft thrust applications. ‘A nominal station-keeping range 1s about 50 feety 1¢ continues to be easy out to 200 feet, beconen Aif~ fieult at 600 feet, and practically impossible be- yound. These figures apply vhen the spacecraft 10 operating at the sone altitude as the target, and are souevhat reduced when the epececreft operates tbove or belov. Station keeping ig easily sccan- plished et extrenely abort ranges (e matter of a few Toches).” Gental 1X operated within « few inches of hicle that ves sloviy rotting about ell three faxea in order to inspect @ shroud failure. Gemini X Esiutained position within several fect cf a slowly rotating vehicle, vile wn extravehicular astronact transferred to that vehicle and recovered a micro~ neterorite experiment. he mont effective control during station keeping 4s to have the spececraft attitude control in plat~ fore node (autoastic attitule hold), while the tronaut geuerates short pulses of the translation thrusters. Pulse sole of attitude control 48 effec tive, but 4t requires more attention, and rate coa~ nd’ ts eleo effective, but ia a reletively bigh propellant wer. Because station keeping at short ranges has proved to be simple and accurate, no difficulty was auticipeted in entering the target docking cone. This has generally been the case, although in one instance during Gemini XII a disturbance waa encou~ tered on duitel contact. The spacecraft was backed away, the vehicles restebilized, on docking reint~ tiated. ecentricity on docking contact can be held to a few inches, end angular alignnent to less then 2", Contact velocities have been less than 1 foot ‘per secon’. Accelerations imported to either target OF spacecraft have been insignificant. Impact shock Le absorbed by hydraulic dampers, ond a rigidising operation eneues atuonatically, which draws the speceoraft nose wection into herd points on the ter- Bet docking adapter. In the rigidized condition, the combined vehicle thas been ostisfactarily maneuvered both in attitude and trenslation. Attitude control can be exercised either with the spocecraft systen or with the ‘target-vehicle systen, In the latter case, commend Ae accomplished through & hard-line wbilicel which 4a made during the docking operation. ‘The system has @ capability for 96 coded comands. Prior to docking, these comands cen be sent to the target vehicle either fron the spacecraft through en Leband radar Link, or fron the ground using enother RF Link. In the course of a flight, severe) thousand comands are sent involving these three input sources, All comends have been received and acted ‘upon. Docked translational maneuvers have utilited the Agena propulsion systens, the primary propulsion systen: (PP5)=-16 000-pound thrunt—for large meneu- vers and the secondary propulsion systes—l00~pound ‘torust—for saall maneuvers, or vernier correction The secondary systen also enploys still snaller ‘thrusters—32-pound thrust-—for ullege orientation prior to PPS burns.Considerable analytical, testing, and similation etfort were expended to assure dynamically stable operations during primary propulsion systea burns. ‘This effort vas necessary in light of the relatively high flexibility of the docked Joint vnich haa a natural frequency of the first bending mode of sbout four cycles per second. Fairly simple shaping net- Works were utilized to obtain stability. They pro- duce m very lov high-frequency gain with a long time constant. ‘This approach resulted in eiguificant attitude transients following engine start, aa seen ye a IAN RETRY PAR WETOR FLA ac TOR PUA 8 [HE hao.drov. ise sf isa. a is. PosiGRAde [920.0] 938.0 |739.4] 741.5 | 156.5] 156.3 [20.02] 20.08 leraccmoe| 920.4 vu7. [aoe] x602 |396.4196.0 [aoe] 20.9 Significant attitude transients Figure 9. comparing the orbitel parameters desired and achieved during the maneuvers carried out on Gea- Ant XI (also shom on Fig 9). To adequately contain ‘these transients, great care vas exercined in the control of lateral center-of-gravity offset, engine ‘gimbal trim, and thrust vector orientation of the docked configuration. In future prograna, it may be desirable to eliminate these coustreinte through use of more sophisticated shaping networks in the flight control systen. One of the main applications of redundancy in the target vehicle ts to inmure shutdown of the Agena ngines at the proper point. The prinary meana for sbutdova during = mmeuver is through the use of a velocity meter. ‘Tata ia backed up in several ways: () ty 0 stored program comand set up to occur Several seconds after the nominal duration of the ‘burn, (2) by the comand Link where the crew mont ‘tors’tnertial velocity indicators in the spacecraft, and (3) by an armestop witch representing an inde pendent and direct hardline control of the engine from the spacecraft. In addition, the engine 1s automatically shut dowa upoa sensing a turbine. overspeed condition. Undocking has also been a most straightforvard Operation. In the case of Genini VIII, vhere uncon trolled rotations vere encountered while docked, the undocking took place under rotational rates of about 5* per second in roll, and 3° per aecond in pitch and yaw. The undocking sequence 1a initiated on camend from the spacecraft, end this undocking cmuses similtaneous urigidizing of the docking adapter and retraction of the latches. In general, aft spacecraft thrust has been applied, but in Gea int XI no thrust was used, and « smooth deployuent of the spacecraft was obtained Just utilizing the nonentun from the unrigidizing operation. Because” of the eritical nature of undocking, severel backup methods are employed. One 18 a completely independ~ ent control by hardline of the sequence by the crew, ‘and the other ie a pyrotechnic diseugagenent of the docking latches. Ys. Extravehtoutar Aotivt tt Extravehicular activities (EVA) are an aspect of ‘the program that bave been penetrated 1a consider= ably nore depth than had been originally conten- plated, A summarization of acccmplishnente 18 ‘Presented in Figure 10, The remulte of the initial (GEMM EVA ACCOMPLISHMENTS (ASIC FEASIBILITY OF EVA QU MENT DORKING DAY AND MIGTT OPERATIONS SURFACE TRAKSIT WORK TASKS OF VARYING COMPLEXITY (CREW TRANSFER TO ANOTHER VEMICLE USE OF MANEUVERING UNIT (EQUIPMENT RETRIEVAL FROM PASSIVE. SATELLITE DURING EWA, FORMATION FLYING WITH PASSIVE VENICLE DURING EVA. EVA PHOTOGRAPHY ‘TETWER DYMAMICS DY RESTRANTS Figure 10. Gentnl BVA accomplishments ‘extravenicular operations on Gemini IV vere exceed~ ingly satisfactory. The adequacy of the environ- mente protection that was provided for the EVA astronaut was denonstrated, the ability to maneuver about vith a handheld unit’was demonstrated, end no Atsortentation or other detrimental effecta of this Rev operating regine were encountered. ‘This vas a ‘brief exploratory operation thet 444 not aignifi- cantly involve complex and detailed vork tasks, It vas not possible to investigate EVA further ‘until Genin 1X, and thie flight, indeed, was « very major extension of BVA operations. "It involved @ grone extension of tine to over 2 hours, and, therefore, remited in operations during day aed night. It involved more extended evaluations of Baneuvering with an Ubilioal, and alo moving alo0g ‘the spacecraft using free-flosting techniques, hand= holds, and handrails. Tt involved operstions inside ‘the equipment adapter of the apacecrate out of aight of the coomand pilot. More significantly, 1¢ tn- volved complex close-in work tasks that had to be accomplished on a fairly tight schedule, These 8 incluled mounting equiment, retrieving ipment, and preparing and donning a sophisticated ouaut-meneuvering wit. Although, in the main, these activities vere carried out, they were accom panied by a condition of excessively high workloed. Aaa result, the denonstration of the astronaut maneuvering ‘unlt (AMU) had to be dlecontinued. ‘This high workload {ovolved difficulty in maintat: ing body position during the conduct of these teake caused by inadequate restraints, and compounded by conditions of Limited mobility in the preseurized mult, by the high thermal loed encountered, and probably by other enviromental factors. YUThe magnitude of the effort can be qualitatively Aeduced fron heart-rate and respiration-rate levels encountered during this operation. ‘These rates, presented as a tine history in Figure 11, shov sus. ‘tained levels of the order of 150 beats per minute, and peok levels of 180 beats per minute during the 4MU donning operation, These rates are comparsble to those encountered during much activiti playing soccer or basketball, here on the ground, and, obviously, are not desireble when operations are’ sustained over « long period, Unfortunately, At Le not possible to exactly correlate heart rate fend workload because of unknoyn factors, such as ‘thermal environment, carbon dioxide enviroment, ‘emotionsl factors, und others. ‘These extremely high heart rates have not always been encountered during extravehicular operations Aleo shown in Figure 11 are values obtained during ‘the standup BVA end during the umbilical EVA on Gemint X. ‘work tesks, such as photography, in a well-tethered condition.’ The umbilical EVA during Gemini X aia Anvolve sone complex work tasks, such as the con~ nection of a highepressure fluid line for use with @ handheld maneuvering unit, and the retrieval of « microneteorite experinent mounted on enother yehi~ cle. However, these work teaks were leas sustained, The standup BVA involved relative Light= were more cpencended in nature, and aid not present Ss restricted s tine Lines In'this care heart Fates ‘ere melntained belov 135 beats per almite vith an tverage wurtained heart rete of 115 beste per mine ute, a completely satisfactory condition. Ingress Produced senevdist higher pulses becmuse of @iffi- Tulties in handling the uibilical within the cock pit. Another factor of possible aignizicence was thet the standup VA wae progrased before the un- bilical EVA, alloving for sone lintted scclinatizn- ton to the EVA enviroment. After the encouraging results of Gemini X, fur- ther difficulties in this area vere encountered on Gemini 11, Although much engineering effort was expended to esteblish adequate body restraint end positioning methods in the equipment adapter sren, At wes not possible to evaluate these festures be- cause of fatigue encountered in a vebicle-to-vehicle ‘tether-hookup operation which preceded this activ ity. The pitfall here was thet extensive ground similation and training activity hed indiested that the tether hookup was easy to do. This result re flects the limitation of zero~g alrplene-training Decause of the short durstion of the cero-g environ ment available. Tt 1s not possible to accurately evaluate sustained operations that require periods Of over 30 seconds, To cireumvent this difficulty, ” 1 T cane ” ' fiarenprenen ara Freese ° i” “i a 7 ESS ie F sol wos. oi 5 ‘ hem Sas ee ics a i iH i : 7 Fsenres ca ees ewounr canens fa Fposeneenan a CREAN | ABNER || _bpomecrn een woes ws @ oi nest] eamncnoarten | feinaness - 5 eee eae nee ae acieonti ines awe 11; HVA work levels 7much more emphasis has been placed on underwater neutral-buoyancy training for evalustion of close~ 4m sustained work-tasks, ‘In the light of these prior results, the (EVA) on Gemini XII vere approached with certain oper: ‘tional inprovenents in mind. These were to care- fully engineer simple, but effective, restraints for each task involved; to train and careftlly work out overall-task time-Iines in undervater stmlt ‘thon, with frequently scheduled rest periods; to provide an open-ended approach to the total opera~ tions to allow good subjective evaluation of each ‘task; to provide crew faniliarization by conducting standup EVA © day prior to the uabilical EVA; end ‘to evaluste work taske most Likely to be of impor= ‘tance in future BVA applications. During the w- Dilical IVA, two work stations were provided, one ‘near the nose of the spacecraft on the docking adapter of the target vehicle, and one aft of the spacecraft within its equipment atapter, The ‘adapter configured for the EVA 18 shove in Fig~ ure 12, The activity in thi aren tock place during vou) Puch 7 ate ‘GEMM ZIT ADAPTER WORK AREAS Figure 12. EVA adapter 8 night-side pass. Tue work tasks duvolved, snoug bresking and making several different types of electrical and fluid connections; removing, in~ stelling, and torquing of bolts; cutting electrical connecting hooks end eyes of various evaluating portable handholds utilizing a Velcro attaciment; tnotelletion and utilizing pip pins as body-tether attachments at various pointe in the vehicle; evaluating "Dutch=shoe"atype fixe foot restraints; and using adjustable-Length vast tethers. With these features, the BVA astronaut, during the flight of Genini XII, was eble to go methodt- cally through his vork program during umbilicel EVA ‘and to operate for over 2 hours with very low heart and respiration rates, in a coupletely sutiafectory ‘thermal enviroment, and without encountering eny significant level of fatigue, Heart rates except for one brief instance were cbout 125 beats per min ute, and the sustained level vas approximately 100'beats per minute. In fact, this astronaut was able to do additional tasks not formally in his tine Line, such as deploying an experiment package mounted on the target vehicle, snd overcoming simple equipment malfunctions in two instences, These remulte provide considerable confidence in the ability of man to do useful work cutside the spacecraft if adequate attention 1s given to re- straint syatens, aids for moving along the spec craft, and proper aimulation end training. Improved mobility of the pressure muit and simtler femtures should enhance this capability even nore. Vi._Tethered cles In spite of the fact that station keeping with enother vehicle has proven to be precise end effec- tive, this operation requires a coutinuous expedi- ture of propellant (stout 20 pounds per revolution im the case of Genini). Future operations can be envisioned in which undocked operations with vehi- cles in close proximity might be sustained for days oF even longer. ‘Techniques for providing this capability without energy expenditure should be very useful; hence, part of the Genial Program has been to investigate Aimple tethering of two vehicles for this purpo! ‘Iwo approaches have been studied: (1) establishing 8 slow rotation of the two tethered vehicles using the centrifugal force to maintain a taut tether, and (2) carefully alining the two vehicles slong the earth local vertical and providing a separating force fron the earth gravity gradient. During Gemini XI, the slov-epin technique we Aenonstrated; the results vere quite similar to those predicted fron analysis end simulations. The notions involved are shown in Figure 13. The spin vas started with the target vehicle attitude stabilized. The spacecraft vas then maneuvered to extend the tether end the spin initiated by firing @ lateral translational thruster using eft firing thrusters to maintain the tether more or less taut. Stmetions revealed that starting accuracy is not particularly critical, although fairly large oscil~ Antions of the spacecraft can remits. Confitions of alternate periods of slack end tension in the ‘tether are also likely to be encountered for sev= eral cycle, After initistion of the opin, the control systems of both vehicles were abut’ dovn. The apacecraft oscillations were Lightly, but poei- ‘tively, duxped and reduced to helt amplitude in about 1 hour without any atteagte at crew control. Later in the test, sali thrust epplications by the crew were found to be effective in demping these osciiietions more rapidly. After the oscillations demped to small values during the Genint 21 flight, ‘the crew had complete confidence in the stability of this rotating system. ‘The rotational rate toi- tially achieved was 39° per second and waa Later increased to 55* per second. At these low rates, centripetal accelerations were not perceptible by the crev, but the use of higher rotationel rates to produce Grtificiel @ 1s obvious, To produce = gravity-eredient stebilized systen requires extrenely precise control of the relative velocition between the two vehicles, The amplitude of oscilletions of this systen, as a function of the relative velocity at their’ starting conditions (assuming initial aligumert along the earth verti- cal) 1s presented in Figure 1h, A relative veloc~ Aty of 0.14 fect per second produces the ideal condition of a match with earth rates. Deviations ‘beyond 40.25 feet per second from this valueROTATION INITIATED WITH SC TRANSLATION THRUSTERS veqsec YAWRATE ROLL RATE e 435 g of 8 28 20.8 um 50,18:00 HRS 51:33:50 ns ELAPSED TIME = MD Pigure 13. Spacecraft retes during tether exercise 00" velocity match to within 0.16 feet per second. It 4a felt that the accuracy of the velocity matcn would have been considersbly better with a fully o operational control system. The vehicle combination eo" 7 / Ps vw [LRATION ANGLE @ DEGREES? wo f é ™o @ aot 3 RELATIVE VELOCITY FI/8t¢ igure 1h. Oscillation amplitude ‘versus relative velocities excludes condition of capture, end results ina rotating aysten. During the Gemini XIT flight, the docked combina~ tion ae placed in a position with its longitudinal axis along the Local vertical, and after the space- ‘undocked, the 100-foot tether was deployed ‘Agena control systen activated to meintein its alinement.. Because of degradation in the atti- tude thrusters of the spacecraft, the tine spent in obtaining the velocity match was greater than would normelly have been needed. Ultimately, wn oactlia~ ‘tion amplitude of 45° mas obtained inticating » - pie als. was meintained in this configuration with the eon- ‘trol aysten off for several orbits, and disturbance: from movenente within the spacecraft did nct appear to significantly affect the operation. sone ai turbances could be noted during fuel-cell purge: and other fluid venting, but even these 414 not up- ‘et the operations. Both the roteting ayaten and the gravity-atabilized systen, therefore, appear to be effective methods for maintaining two vehicles in close proximity. Which one is to be used would de~ pend on the peculiar requirenent of a mission. WII._Bgerinente Because of the variety and mumber of experiments curried out in the Gemini Program, it 4a not prac- tical to comprehensively cover this activity within the scope of this paper, Some indication of the types of experiments conducted tm be glemed fron ‘the pertial Listing presented in Figure 15, The scenrre Ded CELESTIAL RADIOMETRY $3 Symone reneam $4 visuacacuty $11 Amciownonzon pucroceapny $13 UV ASTRONOMICAL CAMERA S526 GEMINI TOM WAKE MEASUREMENTS TEEAWEAL AND APPLIED FEEINIEAL at anes WTeRSrEATOO sreatan ise. turctosta Wed eroron fue se cemoucven SEewray couse TE at manent arcs WL CARDIOVASCULAR conDITIONNG Nez WoAssavs sony Puubs WL sowe Deumenarizarion M9 MUMAN OTHOLTH FUNCTION S54 RADIATION AND ZERO'G ON WHITE BLOOD CELLS. Figure 15. Typical Geaint experinentsbreakdown that 18 shown covers scientific, techni- eal, ond medical aLeciplines, As Aniteated in Figure 16, 52 individual. experi~ nents were planned for the program, and 40 were issiONs ‘coPLETED 1 quarry OR PLANNED SciewTPK: w “ MEDICAL * uw ‘TECHNOLOGICAL w a ‘APOLLO SUPPORT 10 2 2 mm ‘COMPLETED a ” Figure 16. Sumery of Gemini experiments actually conducted with satisfactory remults. Most experiments vere flova several times in the cour of the program, Experinents are regarded as an extrenely important aspect of the manned space- flight progren, The presence of the crew to exer= cine dlacrimination to set up and operate equipment, ‘end to aid in the interpretation of results has Proved extrenely useful, With the meny disciplines involved, the prograa of experinents required « rather heavy effort in systens integration, train~ ing, and flight planning, but, the finenciel expend- iture for this activity wes relatively loy compared to the cost of developing and operating the vehi~ cles. YITE. Controlied Reentry Another phase of Genint missions vhich requires prectae guidance and control is the maneuvering reentry, This mission phase involves maneuvering dn the hypersonte region through roll ortentation of the lift vector to control the lending point to within a close tolerance of the desired position. Precise control into the Lending point bas been accomplished on sll of the last seven flights (ig 17). on prior flights, close-Loop guidance il, NORTH OF TARGET NOTE: GI BALLISTIC REEWTHY=NO GUIDANCE, (GILPROGAAW GANK ANGLE-NO GUIDANCE CIE BALLISTIC REENTRY=HO GUDANCE IE CLOSED LOOP REENTRY-ARONG CROUND UPDATE GML THRU G RIE CLOSED LOOP REENTAY Figure 17, Gemini lending accuracts yas not attempted, except on Gemini V, in which an incorrect gromd-ipdate to the airborne coayuter Produced a large lending-point error. To mech= anteations of guidance equations have been utilized, doth of which have provea satiafactory, ‘These ‘ethods are descizbed in Reference 1. The constant Dandwangle technique (vith discrete back angle re~ versus) ie somevbet simpler in terns of the ebility of the crew to monitor proper aysten operations, but At is fairly sensitive to center-of-gravity int euractes or other effects on lift-to-drag ratio. ‘The technique involving « variable bank engle alter~ nating wth steady roll has been used during the last. five flights, end excellent results have been obtained, both with the comund pilot executing maneuvers based on cockpit deplays of the guidance information, and also under cond{tions vhere the Guidance signals are fed directly into the flight control system (hands-off operation), Although both procedures have proved adequate, the astronauts Generally feel that their ability to monitor systen operation 48 enhanced vhen thay are in the loop, and executing the guidance comands, Aa in the ca of rendervous operations, the consistency of suc- fully controlled reentry has provided a high degree of confidence in the application to Apollo where Lending footprinteshitts of hundreds of miles ay be encountered, 1, Te Gentnt Program - Progress end Plane. Carles W. Mathews. Paper presented at ‘ATAA/TASA' 32a Manned Spece Flight Neeting, Houston, Tex., Hov., 1954, 2, Gemini Midprogram Conference, Including Bxperi~ ment Results, RASA SP-121, Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, Tex., Feb, 23-25, 1966.