He is risen. ? Happy Easter!
Thanks @mycaninelife for being willing to get up at butt o’clock in the morning to perform rendezvous manuevers at the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm. It was great to meet Aslan, Gumbo and Maple (even if Kuiper was a little toooo interested in Maple. ♂️♀?)
Our space timeline previously left off with Gemini 6A, which rendezvoused with 7 and played Jingle Bells ? live in orbit. 6A’s mission lasted just over one day, but the astronauts in 7 were up there for a record-smashing 14 days (December 4-18, 1965.)
Can you imagine spending two weeks with a coworker in a space smaller than the front seat of a car? The good news was that Frank Borman and Jim Lovell didn’t have to spend the entire time in their spacesuits. Gemini 7 was the first mission which allowed astronauts to take them off inside the capsule.
The opportunity for personal hygiene was thus much improved. It turns out that it’s a lot easier to get clean(ish) when you’re not wearing a spacesuit 24/7 (and wet wipes had just made their commercial debut in 1963.) Unfortunately, one of our intrepid souls managed to misplace their toothbrush (HOW???) and they ended up sharing one for the full 14 days. ?
On the recommendation of Pete Conrad, each Gemini 7 astronaut brought a book along. Frank brought “Roughing It” by Mark Twain, and Jim brought “Drums along the Mohawk” by Walter D. Edmonds (both were chosen partly because they had nothing to do with space. ?) They didn’t have room to bring much else along; they even had to carefully plan out exactly where to stash 14 days worth of food wrappers. ?
In addition to storing food wrappers, they also had to store…other stuff. Mission report excerpt:
“There was a medical requirement on this flight for each crew member to collect a sample of each urination and stow it for postflight analysis…the crew members soon developed techniques to minimize spillage..but both felt that the volume spilled after that initial period of accommodation was…very meaningful from an esthetic and comfort standpoint.”
Eww? On the other hand, “they reported that they found the defecation bags adequate for this purpose.” ? So there’s that, I guess ?
Original post: https://www.instagram.com/p/BwgWohxBkcQ/