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
DRAFT OF NOTE ON THE SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATIONS Towa rd the end of the flight, between 16 hr and 47 min (UT) and 17 hr and 03 min (UT), 24 May 1962, Lt. Cdr . Carpenter made a series of observati ons on a l uminous band vi sible around the hori zon. The most de ci s i ve observat i on wa s made wi th an ai r glow f i lter suppli ed by Mr. Iawrence Dunkelma n of Goddard Space Fli ght Center. The f i lter transmits a narrow ba nd of wavelengths, approx i.mately 11 Angstroms wi de at the half power poi nt and centered at t he wa, ve length of the strongest radiation of the ni ght a i rglow, namely 5577 Angstroms The f i lter cut out all other Ught, but passed the light of the , luminous ba nd, which i s thus i denti f i ed a s the 5577 l a ye r . Lt. Cdr. Carpenter noted tha t the layer was very bri ght. He f ound t hat Phecda:Ursae Majori s, magn i tude 2.5 was lost to s i ght a t the brighte s t part of the layer. Assuming that the i mage of Phecda occupi es about 1 SY.Uare -8 o_,)J- mi nute of' arc on the retina, or 8.18 x 10 steradi ans, O.ssuming that a star of 6 2 magni tude o.8 yi elds 10- lux (1umensJm ) we f i nd that the brightness of t he l aye r i s about 3 lumen1m2 )(steradian) or 3 x 10-4 st i lbs. Thi s i s e ~ui va l ent ~t (S"-~) t o about 4 x 104 erg;,m2 )(sterad:i.anh_, taking the le ast mechani cal e y_ui va le nt of light as 1. 6-1 x 10-3 watts per lumen f or 556o A as per the AIP ha ndbook . It is about 50 t i mes as bright as a white surface i lluminated by moonlight. The angular he i ght of the layer was found i n 5 di fferent ways : 1. By dire ct esti mate - 8° to 10°. 2. By noti ng that it is approximately twice the height of t he twilight layer. Lt. Cdr. Carpenter estimated the he i ght of the twi light l a yer a,s 5 sun diameters , whi ch means 2-1/2 degrees, hence the he i ght of the 5577 layer would be 5°. 3. By observation of the star Phecda (ju Ma) a s it pa ssed t he middle of the luminous band.
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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.