PROJECT GEMINI ANALOG RE-ENTRY SIMULATOR NASA FILM 78064
Video from the channel PeriscopeFilm about Project Gemini, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 13:09. Language: English. Video type: Archive footage.
What it shows
A NASA technical film about a six-degree-of-freedom analog simulation, created at the Manned Spacecraft Center to study manual control of the Gemini capsule during re-entry. The simulation covers the range from about 300,000 feet down to the deployment of the drogue parachute, at about 50,000. It shows the simplified cockpit, with seat, hand controller and a panel featuring the attitude ball ("eightball"), an accelerometer, a clock and a turn-command light, as well as the two PACE 231R analog computers that drove it.
When and where it was filmed
It was produced at the Manned Spacecraft Center before Gemini's crewed flights, since it speaks of the craft's re-entry in the future tense. The results would be used to set the procedures for centrifuge training at the Naval Air Development Center in Johnsville, Pennsylvania.
Context
After retrofire, the Mercury capsule followed a ballistic trajectory; the Gemini, by contrast, could correct its splashdown point. With its shifted centre of gravity, it flew at an angle of attack and generated lift, which was steered through roll manoeuvres, while a continuous roll cancelled it out. The reachable footprint measured about 500 nautical miles long by 90 wide. An onboard digital computer, with an inertial platform, told the pilot the turns required. Each astronaut flew seven simulations in the two manual modes. The rate-command mode was easier but used more fuel; the direct mode was more economical, and the film concludes that good control was also achieved with it.