Prev heroicrelics.org
Liberty Bell 7 Travelling Exhibit Site Index
Mercury Hatch Gallery
Next

dsc06852.jpg

Detail of the micrometeorite sampler experiment hardware on the interior of the hatch.

Clockwise starting from upper right, the various labels read


Vent Valve

Vent ←

Outer Door
← Close | Open →

Bendix Airlock
Micro-Meteorite Sampler

[unintelligible] Part No: 19E60-1A
Serial No.: 5U
McDonnell Specification
[unintelligible]
The Bendix Corporation
Utica Division


Picture 1 of 2.

Normally, a "meteorite" is a space rock which has made it to a planet's surface, having been a "meteor" when it was streaking through the atmosphere and a "meteoroid" when it was flying through space, so I would have expected it to be a "Micro-Meteoroid Sampler" (much scaled-down cousin to Pegasus).

I searched various Project Mercury documentation for such an experiment, but was unable to find any details. It would seem that this was created for a mission which was never flown. (Project Mercury was an open-ended project, without a predetermined number of flights. At one time, it was proposed that each of the Mercury 7 fly a suborbital flight on a Redstone before progressing to orbital flights on an Atlas. Perhaps the best-known unflown flight was Freedom 7 II, which would have been flown by Alan Shepard, his second spaceflight, on a three-day mission).

 
Micrometeorite sampler on interior of Mercury Hatch at Liberty Bell 7 Travelling Exhibit
Time picture taken Sat Jun 19 12:13:14 2004
Location picture taken Space Hall
U.S. Space & Rocket Center
Huntsville, AL
Prev Mercury Hatch Gallery Next