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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Adler visitors take centrifuge for a spin

News
Adler visitors take centrifuge for a spin

September 29, 2005

A press preview Wednesday included lunch for reporters -- served after a tour of the exhibit, which stars Gus Grissom's Liberty Bell 7 capsule. In all likelihood, Adler folks figured it would be cleaner to spin first, feed later.

The centrifuge features two capsules that rotate like a merry-go-round at a speed fast enough to simulate 2 G forces, or about equal to twice the rider's weight. Each pod seats two dizzy riders.

The space is cramped. The rider's knees are just inches away from a video screen that shows some of what Grissom might have seen during his 15-minute flight in 1961.

"Oh, boy!'' Grissom can be heard shouting as the centrifuge spins, the rider becomes disoriented, and Earth fades away. During Grissom's journey four decades ago, he endured more than 11 Gs as his rocket hit 25,000 mph.

For the Adler "astro-nots,'' the only requirements are to buckle up, hold tight, avoid pushing the red "chicken switch,'' which will stop the ride -- and keep your breakfast down.

In NASA centrifuge training, now discontinued, astronauts were given tasks to do while spinning to prepare them in case their craft went out of control. Few astronauts look back fondly on the centrifuge. In various autobiographies, many use the word "diabolical.''

Michael Collins, the command module pilot on Apollo 11, the first lunar landing mission, writes that at 8 Gs, he felt sharp pains in his chest. At 10 Gs, "breathing is nearly impossible.'' As the centrifuge spun even faster, his vision began to fade as darkness closed in on the edges of his eyes.

Gordon Cooper once hit 18 Gs, which he said "felt as if a Mack truck had been parked on my chest.'' Some astronauts, post-spin, found red speckles on their skin -- tiny hemorrhages called petechiae. Collins recounted how the centrifuge could create "lingering hangovers'' that could last for days.

The Adler centrifuge -- which offers an experience similar to a Tilt-A-Whirl -- runs for only about a minute. A long minute.

Grissom once said that as miserable as the centrifuge was, the hours of being shook up gave him more confidence in his "ability to pilot a spacecraft than any other test."

The exhibit, Lost Spacecraft, runs Sunday through Jan. 8. There is no extra charge for riding the centrifuge.

NASA technicians dubbed it "the County Fair Killer.'' Astronaut Deke Slayton described it as a "carnival ride gone wild.'' Alan B. Shepard Jr., the first American in space, called it an "oversized cream separator.''

"Either it whips you,'' Shepard once observed. "Or you whip it.''

It is the centrifuge -- a massive machine that spins its occupants to simulate the gravitational forces felt by astronauts leaving and re-entering Earth's atmosphere.

Full story here: www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-adler29.html

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Can't wait to strap in myself!...

[Al Degutis]

admin said:

Can't wait to strap in myself!...

Not for me... no thanks. I enjoy most rollercoaster rides but I never go on the spin-n-pukes. I get motion sickness from some of the rollercoaster corkscrews and loops, especially when they are combined back-to-back. Thank goodness for Dramamine.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

'Lost' capsule can be found at Adler

It remained lost for nearly four decades. But 38 years after it sank in the Atlantic, NASA's only missing spacecraft, the Liberty Bell 7, was rescued from the ocean floor and is now on display at the Adler Planetarium in the exhibit "The Lost Spacecraft."



It's one of the largest exhibits ever installed at the planetarium, occupying 32,500 square feet. Getting the space capsule inside proved to be no easy task, according to Adler Planetarium astronomer Doug Roberts.

"We had to take all the doors off the entrance of the building just to load it in," he says. "We're so excited to have it."

The Liberty Bell 7 was America's second manned space flight. During the first, NASA officials realized in case of an emergency there wasn't a quick way for an astronaut to exit the capsule. So, the Liberty Bell 7 hatch door was equipped with a mechanism that allowed the pilot to blow the hatch. Shortly before it splashed down, the hatch unexpectedly blew and it began to take on water.

"There were some tense moments as one helicopter attempted to retrieve the capsule while another tried to pull [astronaut] Gus Grissom out of the water," Roberts explains. "They couldn't save both, so they opted to save Grissom."

The capsule sank 15,000 feet to the ocean floor -- 3,000 feet deeper than the ship Titanic.

In 1999, the Discovery Channel sponsored a recovery mission utilizing the same underwater salvage technology that enabled the recovery of items from the Titanic.

The capsule is obviously much smaller than the Titanic, and Roberts says finding it was the proverbial needle in a haystack.

"The amazing thing isn't just that they found it -- they found it on the first trip out to look for it."

Once retrieved, the capsule was sent to the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center for restoration and preservation. The capsule was in surprisingly good condition, though.

"That far down, there really aren't any fish or other biological organisms because it's so cold. So there wasn't anything eating away at it," Roberts says. "There was water damage to it, of course. But other than that, it's in pretty good shape."

A four-person crew at the space center took the capsule apart, cleaned it and replaced as many as 26,000 pieces.

"Some of the cockpit had to be reproduced, but most of what you see is original," Roberts says. "They even left the rust intact."

When taking apart the ship, the museum crew came across some interesting items that Roberts says were probably never meant to be found. "There are five $1 silver certificates signed by all the people who built the capsule, and they also found a can of shark repellent and some personal items Grissom left behind as the capsule was sinking."

Grissom, who was killed in the 1967 Apollo 1 fire, maintained he did not blow the hatch. After examining the capsule, scientists did determine one bolt was defective, but whether it was enough to cause the hatch to be blown open is unclear.

"Unfortunately, they couldn't find the hatch," Roberts says. "It might have given conclusive evidence about what happened."

The exhibit doesn't just re-create Grissom's flight, however. Another component that Roberts thinks will be popular is a centrifuge that lets visitors fell what it's like to be an astronaut re-entering Earth's orbit.

"Two G's isn't a huge amount of [gravitational] force. It's less force than a roller coaster," he says. "Still, it makes for an exciting ride."

"The Lost Spacecraft: Liberty Bell 7 Recovered" opens Sunday at the Adler Planetarium, 1300 S. Lake Shore. Open daily 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. through Jan. 8. Adults $16, seniors $15, children $14. Call [phone] or visit the Web site www.adlerplanetarium.org.

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With or without the draminine...I'm going in!...

[lelsaucedo]

Hey Joe-

Balu and I celebrated his last day at the Adler with a ride on the centrifuge. Not too bad. Neither of us passed out. Be sure to watch the screen and if you want people to watch your expression, be sure to sit in the left hand seat.

-Linda

[Rocketman]

Joe, be sure not to get tanked up on Martinis.

I agree with Al. I'll pass. I rather go up in a real rocket!