Should Future Astronauts Be Cerebral?

Should astronauts be airplane test pilots, scientists, or a combination of the two? All present U.S. astronauts are primarily pilots, and a strong faction in the space business believes that their nerve, quick reactions and experience with flight controls are the indispensable attributes of a successful spaceman. Equally passionate scientists point out that spacecraft are not airplanes and cannot be flown in the same way. Space commanders of the future, they believe, will be cerebral types, at home with electronics, celestial mechanics and computer calculation.

Partisans of both sides of the argument have been stirred up once more by a National Aeronautics and Space Administration report on the two-man Gemini capsule, which will soon supersede the one-man Mercury. The Gemini, says the report, will return to many airplane practices; its crew will fly it as freely as possible. But though the Gemini will be 'flown" after a fashion, to control it effectively will call for highly scientific skills.

Experience in the actual navigation of spacecraft right from the cockpit is almost nonexistent at present. The Mercury capsule which has made three orbital flights, is largely controlled from the ground. Mercury astronauts can partially shut off ground control by flipping switches; they are in fact, told to do so in order to eliminate the remote possibility that a stray electronic impulse (or an enemy-sent signal) might fire their retrorockets prematurely. But eventually they must flip that vital switch back on again. Only a signal sent from the ground at the proper instant can bring them safely down.

Options. Gemini astronauts will have many more opportunities to exercise their personal judgment, but only in ways that meet the rigid requirements of space. If a launching seems to be going wrong Gemini astronauts will have the option of ejecting themselves like airplane pilots hitting the silk. In the Mercury program this emergency function is under the contn of automatic instruments.

When a Gemini capsule is about to re-enter the atmosphere, it will be positioned for retrofire by computers on the ground. The pilot will rearm the retrorockets, which will be fired automatically when the proper time comes. During the capsule's long fiery curve through the atmosphere its astronauts will have a slight degree of control. By firing attitude rockets and tilting the capsule, they will be able to give it aerodynamic lift and so control to some extent the point where it approaches the ground. When it reaches about 48,000 ft the pilot will release a steerable paraglider. This final control is important because Gemini capsules will come down on land, not on the ocean, and the pilot will have to dodge unsuitable terrain.

Rendezvous. Gemini's primary purpose is to practice rendezvous in earth orbit, a job of navigation and maneuver that will be controlled largely by ground-based computers. Only after the Gemini capsule and its target satellite have come within sight or radar range of each other will the pilot take charge. Even then a small computer will tell him how to make the two courses intersect. During the final approach, he will really "fly" the capsule. When sufficient experience has been accumulated, he will mate capsule with target, perhaps orbiting with it and taking advantage of its fuel stores and propulsion.

Controlling the Gemini during re-entry and gliding it through the lower atmosphere to a proper landing place are certainly jobs for a man with experience in winged aircraft, but the rest of the flight will call for very different skills. One of the men on board will have to handle a complex computer as rapidly and efficiently as a secretary drumming on a typewriter. He will need the know-how necessary for interpreting the readings of new, esoteric instruments. For this futuristic job, an M.I.T. doctorate may soon be more of a recommendation than many years' experience as a test pilot.

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