Astronaut Scientific Debriefings, 1962-1963

This NASA file of astronaut scientific debriefing papers from 1962 collects internal Office of Space Sciences material on the science observations made on early Mercury flights. A February 1962 memo from Maurice Dubin asks for more detail on John Glenn's report of luminous particles and the atmospheric horizon layer. A draft memo concludes that the particles were tied to the spacecraft and were not extraterrestrial. The file also holds a Los Alamos letter that attributes the high haze layer to nitrogen peroxide, and notes on Carpenter's airglow observations.

From the source:Release of 2026-06-12 This file contains memoranda, correspondence, reports, and other materials relating to contemporary scientific interest in investigating the nature of luminous phenomena reported by astronauts John Glenn and Walter Schirra during spaceflight. This collection includes transcripts from NASA interviews and debriefings with both astronauts regarding those observations. It also contains details relating to scientific observations of atmospheric phenomena, including brief descriptions of luminous particles, experiences while aboard spacecraft, and circa 1955 theoretical analysis of meteoric particles entering the atmosphere. Pages 34-35, 55-56, 57-63, 64-113, and 122-127 feature content relevant to the PURSUE initiative.

LOS ALAMOS SCIENTIFIC LABORATORY
UNIVl:RatTY 01" CALll"ORNIA
L.09 ALAM09, NIIW MUICO
TO: Dr. Jocelyn Gill -5- DATI: July 13, 1962
From the repcrt 1n Science, I infer that for the layer reported,
(16)
or
(17)
giving
aNi • o.o4 ± 0.027 (18)
and
0N2 • 0.22 ± 0.15 (19)
Any such absorbing layer present during the day would result in rapid heating, and •I
reradiation in the infra-red range from whatever bands may be present. However,
the absorbers postulated below would be destroyed by photodissociation and/or
heating during the day. Hence, it is not surprising that solar spectra have not
shown such an absorbing layer.
StellarJplanetary or lunar spectra might show the existence of such a layer,
if the absorption spectrum has sufficient structure.
Setting (20a)
we find the effective path length Xi.
(20b)
~ • 3.9 x 106 cm (starting absorption at (20c)
.100 km altitude)
'