'Sun in the window': Gemini X

[TheBaron]

Hello all,

I've not produced anything in this part of the forum before so feel a bit like a trespasser. As a first step in fulfilling a long-standing desire to produce my own version of a Gemini space capsule, I'm posting this placeholder to ensure that this is the next subject I do after my current Wasp build over in the aircraft section. That way there's no backing out.... 😁

 

The spacecraft in question will be the Gemini X mission flown by John Young &  Michael Collins, July 18-21, 1966.

 

As well as photography, the build will be based upon use of the following research materials:

 

Carrying the Fire: Michael Collins, W.H.Allen 1970

Forever Young: A Life of Adventure in Air and Space: John Young & James Hansen, Univ. Press of Florida 2012

Gemini X Mission Report NASA 1966

Gemini X Notebook: Michael Collins 1966

Gemini Familiarization Manual Vols. 1-3 SEDR 300 NASA 1965

Transcript, Gemini X Voice Communications (Air-to-Ground, Ground-to-Air and On-Board) NASA 1966

Gemini X Mission Highlights NASA 1966

Project Gemini: Technology & Operations NASA SP-4002 1969

Gemini X Technical Debriefing Vols. 1-2 NASA 1966

On the Shoulders of Titans NASA SP-4002 1969 NASA SP-4203 1977

Gemini Operations Handbook: Spacecraft 10 Vols. 1-3 SEDR 300 NASA 1966

Gemini Technical Memorandum NASA 1966

Gemini X Final Flight Plan NASA 1966

Summary of Gemini Extravehicular Actvity NASA 1966

Interim Report, Manned Spaceflight Experiments, Gemini X  NASA 1967

 

Of particular value in this reasearch and from which many of the above are drawn has been The Michael Collins Papers collection held at Virginia Tech.

Michael Collins Papers, Ms1989-029, Special Collections, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va.

 

More in due course....

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[71chally]

Can't wait to see your treatment of a Gemini capsule Tony, worth watching for the research and design work alone!

[TheBaron]

On 08/08/2023 at 19:24, 71chally said:

Can't wait to see your treatment of a Gemini capsule Tony, worth watching for the research and design work alone!

Kind of you as always James.

 

I've been mining various archives for wider references beyond the - necessarily -  dry technical reports above, by which to put some human clothing on the thread; progress in this having proven unanticipatedly nostalgic due to discovering some digital reproductions of National Geographic magazine from the 1960s covering various spaceflight missions:

Anyhow, a handful of additional Gemini-useful references have turned up:

 

Whiting, Cécile. “‘It’s Only a Paper Moon’: The Cyborg Eye of Vija Celmins.” American Art, vol. 23, no. 1, 2009, pp. 36–55.

Lindley, R. (1967). The Gemini Programme from an Engineering Point of View. The Aeronautical Journal, 71(681), 623-635.

Grimwood, James M., and Ivan D. Ertel. “Project Gemini.” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, vol. 71, no. 3, 1968, pp. 393–418.

Hoffman, S. (1966). Propulsion for Space Flight. The Aeronautical Journal, 70(670), 901-913

“Gemini 10 Goes Walking and Docking.” Science News, vol. 90, no. 5, 1966, pp. 71–71 (Same page also contains 'Stargazing Is Not Easy', fascinating report regarding effects of brightness on human vision in orbit.)

Brulle, Robert V., and Gordon P. Cress. “Gemini Ejection Seat Development Challenge.” Air Power History, vol. 44, no. 4, 1997, pp. 50–61.

 

Not sure how I missed it first time around but the high-res Germini Program gallery is up here:

Although David Harland's book looks intriguing, Young and Colins' books and NASA's reports are probably more than enough as a combination to be going on with at the level required here. You don't have to search vary far through the academic archives to see the relatively minor role which history has assigned the Gemini missions compared to Apollo, despite the groundbreaking nature of what was achieved by the former in generating the experience necessary to feed the successes of the latter.

 

 

 

[keefr22]

This'll be good Tony, looking forward to watching!

 

I don't think I've ever ventured into this part of the forum either - off for a mooch around!

 

Keith