"BALLOON EXPERIMENT -- Drawing shows how the balloon aboard the "Faith 7" spacecraft extends and inflates for aerodynamic studies and visual tests during orbital flight."
Not unlike the artist's depiction of this experiment during the MA-7 mission, the earth is rendered as a cloud covered(?) featureless blob. I wouldn't have signed this either. ;-)
Alas, this experiment was not to be:
“Also on his sixth orbit, after nine hours in space, the astronaut set his cameras, attitude, and switches to deploy a tethered balloon, similar to the one tried on MA-7, for aerodynamic studies of drag and for more visual experiments. The balloon, a 30-inch-diameter Mylar sphere painted fluorescent orange, was to be inflated with nitrogen and attached by a 100-foot nylon line to the spacecraft antenna canister; a strain gauge in the canister should be able to measure the differences in pull on the balloon at apogee (166 miles) and perigee (100miles). Cooper carefully went through his checklist, then tried to eject the balloon package, but nothing happened. He tried again, and still nothing happened. Because the antenna canister was later lost, no one ever knew why the tethered balloon failed to eject. But the second failure of this experiment was more severely disappointing than the first.”
Above per the Astronautix website, at:
www.astronautix.com/m/mercuryma-9.html
“…Another experiment was attempted after 9 hours in flight, during the sixth orbit, when Cooper tried to deploy a balloon but this attempt met with failure. A second deployment effort met with the same results…”
Above per NASA SP-4001, “PROJECT MERCURY: A CHRONOLOGY”, page 192.
Finally:
The following, other than as noted, is from the “MERCURY PROJECT SUMMARY (NASA SP-45)”, at:
history.nasa.gov/SP-45/ch12.htm
“A 30-inch mylar inflatable sphere was packaged in the antenna canister of both the MA-7 (see ref. 1) and MA-9 Mercury spacecraft. These balloons were to be ejected, inflated, and towed at the end of a 100-foot nylon line through one orbital pass to measure the drag experienced by the balloon throughout the orbit. The measured drag could then be readily converted into air density over the Mercury altitude profile. In addition, it was hoped that the astronaut could obtain some sightings yielding visual data on objects in close proximity to the spacecraft.
The design, construction, and qualification of the equipment used on this experiment were carried out by the NASA Langley Research Center. The components of the equipment are shown in figure 12-16. The results of this experiment conducted during the MA-7 flight are contained in reference 1.
[reference 1 being “RESULTS OF THE SECOND U.S. MANNED ORBITAL SPACE FLIGHT, MAY 24, 1962”, specifically:
The objectives of the balloon experiment were to measure the drag and to provide visibility data regarding an object of known size and shape in orbital] space. The balloon was 30 inches in diameter, and was constructed of five equal-sized lunes of selected colors and surface finishes The sphere was constructed of a plastic and aluminum foil sandwich material, and was to be inflated with a small nitrogen bottle immediately after release from the antenna canister at the end of the first orbital pass. In addition, numerous 1/4-inch discs of aluminized plastic were placed in the folds of the balloon and dispersed when the balloon was deployed.. is intended, the pilot observed the rate of dispersion and the associated visual effects of the "confetti."
The balloon was deployed at 01:38:00 ground elapsed time, but it failed to inflate properly. The cause has been attributed to a ruptured seam in the skin. Aerodynamic measurements were taken with the strain-gage pickup, but these are of little use since the actual frontal area of the partial inflated balloon is not known. The visibility portion of the experiment was also only partially successful because only two of the surface colors were visible, the orange and aluminum segments. While the balloon was deployed a series of spacecraft maneuvers evidently fouled the tethering line on the destabilizing flap located on the end of the cylindrical portion of the spacecraft, thus preventing the jettisoning of the balloon. No difficulty was encountered during retrofire and the balloon burned up during reentry.]
The above at:
www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-6/ch1.htm
Briefly summarized, the balloon was deployed satisfactorily but was only partially inflated; hence, little useful data were obtained on this flight.
By a thorough investigation of the MA-7 failure, it was concluded that the balloon failed to inflate because one of the seams connecting the many gores comprising the balloon skin pulled apart.
The experiment was believed to have been of sufficient value to be repeated on a later Mercury flight; therefore, new equipment was developed and qualified for the MA-9 flight. Careful control of balloon construction was maintained throughout the development program and numerous deployment and inflation tests were conducted by the Langley Research Center to insure the quality of the device. These tests were conducted with the flight equipment under conditions which closely simulated the space environment without a single failure. Numerous squib firings were made, without a single failure, to insure that either one or both of the squibs used to unlatch the cover of the canister would accomplish this task. The assembled unit was carefully checked after installation on the spacecraft and was found to be satisfactory. It was, therefore, believed that this experiment was well qualified for flight, but unfortunately the balloon failed to deploy in flight. Failure was attributed to some malfunction in the squib firing circuit that released the hatch cover of the balloon canister. The exact cause of this malfunction could not be determined because the circuit was contained in the spacecraft antenna canister which is jettisoned prior to landing.”
And so began the mixed history of space tether missions, which seems to be well documented here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_tether_missions
Credit: Wikipedia
