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 UNIVERSITY OP' CALIP'ORNIA . . . ' . . L.09 ALAM09, Nl:W MUICO 1'0: Dr. Jocelyn Gill DATE: July 13, 1962 "pasa through" the atmoaphere, especially the abaorbill6 layer (perhap auch • ••• sequences already exif:>t). At the expected orbital height, I estimate a 7 km thick layer w~ld subtend,.., 1/2 degree and a given light source would "pass through" it in eight seconds. Attempts to derive a density distribution would requ.ire a fair number of points in the 111-1/2 or 2 degrees" (divide by 3 ?) so a frame interval near one per second _seems desirable. If operated continuously thru the ni.ght passage approximately 100 feet of 16 mm film would be required per passage • As a crude attempt at spectroscopy, color filters could be used on some of ✓ the sequences, without too serious light loss. For example, a Corning No. 5030 or No. 5543 filter would limit exposure to the wavelength range of maximum absorption by N02 (light loss may be considerable) ·and a Corning No. 3480 filter would limit exposure to the wavelength range where 0- absorption is negligible. Relatively broad band interference filters would be useable on the brighter stars and planets. Direct visual observation through such filters would also be useful, especially if photography is impractical and the astronaut tries to reproduce any attenuation noted by neutral density filters in combination with the same filters and stars used in space. Photometric observations of some of the "intense" airglows mentioned by various authors would also be very instructive • The increased intensity due to J external tangential viewing woul~ help a great deal, and precise height de . terminations could be made • It may be useful to ask Glenn and Carpenter to reproduce the dimming (as well ' / as memory allows) by narrow strips of neutral density filters against the star 1 • I 1
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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.