Documents / Official release
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.
“Low Earth orbit”1 page
LOS ALAMOS SCIENTIFIC LABORATORY UNIVll:R ■ ITY 01" CALll"ORNIA L.09 ALAMC>e, NllW Mll:XICO tO: Dr. Jocelyn Gill July 13, 1962 NitroGen peroxide haa been extensive~ studied and two papers were fou.nd ' ' which gave absorption coefficients in the visible region of the spectrum. Wiley and Foord (Proceedings of the Royal Society Al35, 174 (1932) give a coefficient which I convert to -l.9 2/ er ~l - 3 x 10 cm molecule depending on the wavelengths selected by their filters (the lower value was for the range 4900 < ). < 525·0 A) • Hall and Blacet (J. Chem. Phys. 20, 1745 (1952) give a curve obtained with ' .a Cary spectrophotometer having ~ 5 A resolution. Maxinrum absorption occurs in the range 3500 < ). < 4500 A and drops to ~1/2 the peak value at 5000 A. They give no data for longer wavelengths. I convert their absorption coefficients to ~6 x 10-ia cm2 /molecu.le at 4000 A, and~ 3 x 10-ia cm2 /molecule at 5000 A. Structure produces changes in cross section of~ 2 x 10-ia cm2 /molecule at wave lengths separated by a· few angstroms. Ta.king an 'average value of 4 x10-ia cm2 /molecule 1 ·we find • and using X3 • 5. 4 x 107 cm Po• (1.4 ± 1) x 1011 molecules/cm3 . •.
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Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 216 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.