Astronaut Scientific Debriefings, 1962-1963

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yet to do this - in aircraft - in all the times I've been out
there - see all of the Pacific.
I have never had that opportunity,
and I don't know that anybody ever will.
Tennyson - I think what he was getting at is when in the TIROS
satellite ~ the cottonpicker goes over and takes a picture perhaps
of stratus deck which to a continual extent runs right up against
the mountains that we know are snow-covered - whe re one stops
and the other begins, the snow and the stratus.
It is difficu lt
or impossible to tell.
Schirra - No - well, my daytime was, of course, northern latitude,
and this was basically summer.
I was in the snow-capped Sierras .
Nordberg - This question was really sort of just to make a point,
that if ever an astronaut goes into a polar orbit.~.
Schirra - Yes.
Nordberg - ... or has the opportunity to fly over the ice caps
to look for this distinction, because this is something we find
we are going to live with.
Schirra - I have flown beyond a cloud deck in aircraft at 40,000
feet and had snow on the surface, and usually trees will come up out
of the snow and then make you realize that you are no longer looki ng
at a cloud surface.
Tennyson - Well, our definition of a TIROS Satellite - because of
the width of the TV raster - which is just not good enough to pick
up trees with the wide angle and the mediocre lenses we use.
Schirra - Well, yes.
When you are low enough, you get these terrain
changes which helps you too, I think.