“In the spring of 1958, after President Dwight Eisenhower called to create a civilian space agency, the US Air Force assumed it would lead any national spaceflight effort. As such, the service prepared a detailed, multi-stage plan called Man in Space with the goal of landing a man on the Moon by the mid-1960s.
The first phase of the Man in Space program was a technical demonstration phase called Man in Space Soonest (MISS). This phase would take the first steps in space to understand the human factors involved. The first six flights would be robotic missions designed to test the hardware and flight systems, followed by six animal flights over six months to test the live support system. Once everything was proven, a man would launch, ideally as early as October of 1960. These manned flights would round out the technical needs for the MISS phase by developing reentry and recovery techniques.
As though to compliment the simple goals of the MISS phase, the spacecraft for all stages was very basic. It was expected to be a simple high-drag, zero-lift, blunt-nosed cylinder eight feet in diameter with a flared bottom and an ablative heat shield to protect the passenger from the heat of reentry. The flared skirt would house the reaction control jets for in-orbit attitude control, the retrorockets that would start the spacecraft on its reentry path to Earth, and the recovery parachutes for a splashdown at sea. Throughout the mission, the pilot would lie on his back on a couch, and though it would be pressurized he would still wear a pressure suit as an extra safety measure. Alongside the pilot would be a certain amount of instrumentation, including the main guidance and control systems as well as the secondary power pack, telemetry and voice communications system.
MISS was intended to solve the key unknowns of human spaceflight, keeping the man out of the loop for his own safety; no one wanted to risk a human pilot in case it turned out that weightlessness was debilitatingly disorienting. The pilot would have increased control in later flights, but real pilot control wouldn’t come until the second phase of the program, Man in Space Sophisticated (MISSOPH).
Beginning in March of 1961, the first stage of this phase, MISSOPH I, would send robotic and animal flights in larger spacecraft designed to stay aloft for up to two weeks, the average time it would take to fly to the Moon and back. This spacecraft would be more or less a larger version of the MISS spacecraft but with an airlock to facilitate spacewalks. The second stage, MISSOPH II, would take advantage of the larger Super Titan Fluorine booster to launch to extremely high altitudes. The goal would be to get the spacecraft as far as 40,000 miles from the Earth so that when it returned it would reenter the atmosphere at about 35,000 feet per second, roughly the same speed as a spacecraft returning from the Moon. The third stage, MISSOPH III, would be the first to give the pilot a lot of control owing to its radical new shape. Unlike the blunt vehicles before it, MISSOPH III would feature a flat triangular bottom reminiscent of a boost-glide vehicle so the pilot could make smooth, gliding landings on a runway.
The MISSOPH III spacecraft would live beyond its dedicated stage, facilitating both Earth orbital and lunar missions, but not before the third Lunar Reconnaissance (LUREC) phase of the program flew. LUREC was intended to fly simultaneously with the MISSOPH phase beginning April of 1960. The first stage called LUREC I was devoted to figuring out the details of real-time tracking and communications with a spacecraft a quarter of a million miles from home. Once the tracking system was in place, LUREC II missions could launch on flights to test the guidance system that would get a spacecraft to the right target a quarter of a million miles away. Using an array of scientific instruments, these unmanned vehicles would also measure the temperature, radioactivity, and atmospheric density around the Moon, sending back television images at the same time to help mission planners narrow down safe landing sites.
With a better understanding of the lunar environment, LUREC III would be the first stage to attempt a soft landing on the Moon. The spacecraft would use retro-rockets to slow its descent and telescoping legs to cushion the impact. Staying intact was important; having landed, this spacecraft would gather the first in situ data about the Moon’s surface, including seismic and audio data from ground noises.
Building off lessons learned to this point, the final flight phase, Manned Lunar Flight (LUMAN), would be the one to land men on the Moon’s surface. The first stage, LUMAN I, called for circumlunar animal flights as early as May of 1962 to verify the hardware, computer, and life support systems. LUMAN II would fly the same mission but with human pilots on board. LUMAN III would resume unmanned flight, soft landing a payload on the Moon. In the LUMAN IV stage, that same spacecraft would land on, then launch from the Moon’s surface before returning safely to Earth ideally early in 1963.
At that point, everything would be in place for a manned lunar landing, the goal of the LUMAN V stage. On this mission, one pilot would bring his spacecraft to a soft landing on the lunar surface. Once there, he would leave the spacecraft through the airlock and, thanks to his special pressure suit, be free to explore the surface. He’d get back into his spacecraft for the return flight home and, upon his return, complete the program’s main goal sometime around 1965. Subsequent missions would focus on larger scientific and military goals; LUMAN VI and LUMAN VII would see more complex landed and orbital missions respectively with far more sophisticated science instruments.
When it was pitched in 1958, this Man in Space program was projected to cost $1.5 billion from the first unmanned missions through to the LUMAN missions. But success hinged on a few things, namely getting priority status and the freedom to take control over whatever resources the Air Force might need to get missions flying as soon as possible. And it needed to get that priority status by July 1, 1958, to stay on schedule; the date was just months after the proposal was written.
Though it pushed improved reconnaissance, communications, and early warning systems for protection against enemy attacks as valuable spinoffs, the Air Force’s proposal was deemed too lofty. It was scaled back to focus on the Man in Space Soonest phase that could be done quickly and before taking on something as challenging as a lunar mission, which suited the service just fine. Besides, there was little question for the Air Force that it would lead the way in space. It looked at the X-15 program as a model, the joint USAF-NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) program that had the NACA doing the bulk of the detailed engineering work and the USAF pilots getting the glory of flying record-breaking flights. Why would spaceflight be any different?
Sadly, for the Air Force, President Eisenhower’s decision to found a civilian space agency — NASA — preempted any military program. A year later, NASA’s Mercury program was under development with seven astronauts already selected to fly its missions. The Air Force’s involvement in the program was minimal, supplying Atlas rockets and ground support while the new agency’s astronauts became national heroes.”
Above at/from:
www.popsci.com/how-air-force-planned-to-put-men-on-moon/
Credit: Amy Shira Teitel/Popular Science website
Also:
“It all began on February 15, 1956, in Baltimore, Maryland. Commander of Air Research and Development Command (ARDC) General Thomas S. Power held a staff meeting and called for studies to begin on manned space vehicles that would succeed the joint USAF/NACA X-15 spaceplane program. There were two types of vehicles to choose from: winged and ballistic. One winged approach that would later receive funding was the X-20 Dynamic Soarer. The Task 27544 Manned Ballistic Rocket Research System consisted of a reentry capsule boosted by an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM. Unlike the spaceplane approach, ballistic vehicles could be used for two purposes: speedy delivery of cargo to any point on Earth during an emergency and manned spaceflight.
The Air Force developed a multistage plan with the goal of landing men on the moon by the mid-1960s called Man in Space. Man in Space was split into four phases, the first being MISS. This phase had two objectives: the demonstration of the technological capability and superiority of the United States, and the exploration of the functional capabilities and limitations of the human body in space. Twenty-five flights would have taken place, twelve using the Thor-Vanguard rocket and thirteen using what was referred to as the "Thor-Fluorine". The first six flights would have been robotic missions that tested the spacecraft's hardware and flight systems. The next six would have flown animals over a period of six months to test the life support system and to develop reentry and recovery techniques. They also would have studied the effects of weightlessness and radiation on living creatures. Finally, the first man would fly in space as early as October of 1960. These flights would have used both Thor and Atlas boosters.
Even though the Air Force knew exactly which rockets to use, and therefore already had launch sites picked out as well, one major component was missing— the spacecraft. Even though winged vehicles were still being developed, it was agreed that the optimal choice for MISS was the ballistic reentry capsule. The requirements for such a craft included an ablative heat shield, a window, a 30-inch hatch, and a flared skirt. It also needed to be a high-drag, zero-lift, blunt-nosed cylinder 8 feet in diameter. The flared skirt would contain reaction control jets for attitude control while in orbit, the retrorockets for reentry, and the recovery parachutes that would be deployed during splashdown. Cockpit instrumentation included the main guidance, navigation, and control system, a secondary power pack, and the telemetry and voice communications system. The pilot would lie on his back on a couch during the orbital portion of the mission inside a pressurized cabin. His suit would also be pressurized for safety. According to "Proposal for Man-in-Space (1957-1958)", the astronaut would have been given some control over the spacecraft's attitude and the action of the reentry rockets if he was capable of making decisions during his flight. It was still unknown if microgravity affected cognitive functions.
In June 1958, the first astronaut selection in history took place. Nine pilots were chosen to be the world's first space explorers. Their names were Neil Armstrong, William Bridgeman, Scott Crossfield, Iven Kincheloe, John McKay, Robert Rushworth, Joseph Walker, Alvin White, and Robert White. Armstrong was the only member to join NASA's Astronaut Corps after MISS (and the X-20 program) were cancelled. He flew in space during Gemini 8 in 1966, where he performed the first docking of two spacecraft, and Apollo 11 in 1969, where he became the first person to set foot on the moon. Walker became the first member of the group to reach space according to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale's definition of space while Robert White because the first to do so according to the USAF definition.”
Above at/from:
www.spaceflighthistories.com/post/man-in-space-soonest
Credit: Aeryn Avilla/SPACEFLIGHT HISTORIES website
And last, but NOT least:
www.astronautix.com/m/man-in-space-soonest.html
Credit: Astronautix website
Fascinating. Surely an exceedingly rare work. Unfortunately, no artist’s signature is visible.
Finally, thanks to G's posting of this very image, its associated press slug:
"This is how a General Electric artist envisions the first man in space. The rockets that have propelled him from the earth's surface have fallen away and he is in orbit charting an area never before penetrated by man.
Chicago Daily News,
Chicago 6, Illinois"
The "Chicago" information being exactly what's stamped on the verso of my photograph. Synergy…pretty cool! 😉
.svg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20220702174400){kind=link}
