Question Alternate history questions

[Star Voyager]

Howdy! For anyone monitoring, I have some questions.

1) Would it have been possible to launch Mercury and Gemini from silos?

2) Would the Agena have enough thrust to propel Gemini to the moon?

3) Did Redstone have any silos in the U.S.?

4) If you wanted to go sub-orbital with Gemini, could you stick it on top of a Redstone (without the adapters, of course!)?

5) Would an astronaut survive riding Little Joe or Big Joe?

I'm anxious to hear your ideas !

 

[flaugher]

Others here are better on missiles than me, but I'll have a stab.

The Redstones (by Chrysler) apparently didn't have the fuel capacity to get a Mercury capsule into orbit, which is why the Atlas was used. I'm thinking also that the larger diameter Gemini capsules wouldn't have fit on a Redstone.

You'd think anything could be launched from a silo, but the Mercury and Gemini projects were MADE for the public, and the sight of a rocket blasting out of a hole in the ground wouldn't be so dramatic as an open gantry launch. It might also have been that we wanted to make SURE the Soviets knew that the launch was peaceful, not a warhead missile. The Redstones were in fact used for a couple of H-Bomb tests, and the Soviet leadership was fairly paranoid at this time.

You might even contact the SAC museum in Ashland, Nebraska, for more information. The last time I was there they were working on a very elaborate missile display that would include both fuel and solid missiles from V-2's up to the Pershings.

 

[Star Voyager]

It might also have been that we wanted to make SURE the Soviets knew that the launch was peaceful, not a warhead missile. The Redstones were in fact used for a couple of H-Bomb tests, and the Soviet leadership was fairly paranoid at this time.

I was just wondering if it was absolutely necessary, could it have been done, but that is a very interesting suggestion. Thanks!

 

[sputnik]

Inside a silo at launch tends to be a rather severe acoustical environment; I'm not sure you want to subject your manned spacecraft to that.

An Agena certainly has the thrust, but lacks the fuel capacity, to send a Gemini to the moon. A Transtage or Centaur would have done, though; see my Lunar Gemini add-on, which lets you do a lunar flyby in this way. [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=213"]Lunar Gemini 1.0[/ame]

I don't think Redstone ever operated from a silo; they used transporter-erectors and launched from aboveground. In any case, Redstones were certainly operated in the U.S. for training and space launch, but it's a 200-mile-range missile, so I think we can confidently say that no armed ones were ever placed on alert in the U.S.

While you could presumably build an adapter to hold a Gemini atop a Redstone, I'm not sure the increased weight would give a very satisfactory sub-orbital re-entry test. Sure, the flight would be sub-orbital, but... Depends on what your requirements are, I guess. If you want to cross 100 km, it might -- MIGHT -- do the job. If you want to test the heat shield, a Jupiter might be a better rocket for the job.

Big Joe, certainly survivable (it was a Mercury-Atlas, after all). Little Joe I'm not sure, as I don't have any G-loading info at hand. As I recall, the G's were high but not extreme....

 

[Star Voyager]

Interesting, but the Redstone only had a max range of only 200 miles? That doesn't seem like much...but thank you for your answers!

---------- Post added at 04:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:11 PM ----------

New question:

6) Would it be possible to launch Mercury and Gemini from Vandenberg?

 

[Saturn V]

In so far as I'm aware, the military was only interested in Vandenberg as a launch site because it was more suitable to reach polar orbits from there than KSC. So I guess the answer would be "yes", it's possible, but it depends on where you wanted to go.

Also keep in mind that the Redstone didn't have the range or thrust to reach any orbit. Further complicating a flight with the Redstone from Vandenberg is the fact that the manned sub-orbital flights were launched on an easterly heading to take advantage of the Earth's rotation. That means a launch from Vandenberg eliminates the possibilty of a water landing and the possibility of coming down in a fairly populated area...especially if anything were to go wrong.

I don't know offhand if the Atlas had the capacity to reach a polar orbit, but it's interesting enough to look into.

 

[Star Voyager]

Yes, I should have cleared that up. If Mercury or Gemini was ever needed to go into polar orbit, it could be launched from Vandenberg. Thank you Saturn V!

---------- Post added at 08:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:41 PM ----------

Little Joe I'm not sure, as I don't have any G-loading info at hand. As I recall, the G's were high but not extreme....

Did some research and it actually depends on which Little Joe. On LJ-2, the boilerplate experienced 14.8 G's, which is cutting it very close to human stress points. However, on LJ-1B, the G load was 4.5 G.