Astronaut Scientific Debriefings, 1962-1963

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package i n a vacuum.
The possibility that it might represent small particles
from the fiberglass i nsulator was also considered; in view of the smallness of
the fibers, it appears l :lkely that they would have been blown away at once,
l Lke the Mylar confetti.
The dynamic pressure of 1 dyne m2 is sufficient to
L\I'" \\,••''\
2
remove at once~weighing less than about 10 to 100 milligrams cm ; which
corresponds to a thickness of the order of 0. 3 to 1 mi llimeter for most
ordinary substances.
As menti oned in the MA-6 report, there are two plausible sources
withi n the capsule for these particles.
(1) Snow formed by condensation of steam
from the life-support system.
(2) Small particles of dust, waste, bits
of i nsulation and other sweepings.
The latter are very conspi cuous in a zero g environment, when there
l s nothing to keep them down; it is found to be extraordinarily difficult to
free the i nterior of the capsule of such material.
Undoubtedly, the exteri or
parts of the capsule which are exposed to the environment will contain these
things, and they undoubtedly play a part i n the Glenn effect.
In particular,
a corkscrew shaped piece observed by Carpenter was probably a t urning or
perhaps a raveled piece of insulation.
On the other hand, there is considerable evidence which points to
snow as the source of the majority of the material.
In the first place, water
is dumped out of the capsule i n far larger quantities t han any other substance.
In the second place, the material looked like snowflakes both t o Glenn and to
Carpenter.
In the third place, the fre ~uency with whi ch the Glenn effect i s
reported by Carpenter appears to be correlated with the temperature of the
exterior of the capsule as recorded by thermocouples in the shi ngles.
The
temperature was always lowest at night, falling to temperatures of -35°C just